Ex-UK TV Sports Anchor Probed Over £10M Betting Scheme Collapse
Posted on: June 13, 2025, 08:47h.
Last updated on: June 13, 2025, 08:47h.
- Ex Sky Sports host’s AI betting system promised 12–20% annual returns.
- Peter Reid linked to Bentley Global in promotions.
- Essex Police investigating criminal misconduct.
Alan Bentley, a former TV host for the UK’s Sky Sports network, is facing a criminal investigation after the collapse of his sports betting investment scheme left investors £10 million (US$12.7 million) in the hole.
Bentley, who worked for Sky Sports from 1997 to 2001, claimed to have developed a proprietary AI algorithm called “Algol88” that could predict the results of soccer matches while “constantly refining and innovating the underlying assumptions and strategy.”
He encouraged individuals to purchase high-yield bonds in his company Bentley Global, marketed as producing guaranteed returns of 12% to 20% annually, regardless of match outcomes.
Promotional materials described the scheme as an asset class “wholly uncorrelated to external economic factors” — language that positioned it as a safe, fixed-income product, rather than a gambling venture with inherent risks.
Soccer Star Ambassador
To bolster credibility, Bentley’s company listed former England international footballer Peter Reid, later a manager and pundit, as part of its team in promotional brochures. Casino.org has been unable to reach Reid for comment.
This combination of financial jargon, celebrity endorsement, and AI branding helped Bentley raise just over £10 million from investors between 2016 and 2020.
By 2022, Bentley Global had collapsed. According to an investigation by the UK government’s Insolvency Service, there is no evidence that the company actually placed any soccer bets from late 2019 to early 2020, despite raising around £1.6 million from investors during this period,
The company had no trading income and recorded losses of over £9 million in the two years prior, the agency stated.
AI ‘Did Not Exist’
Further scrutiny by the insolvency firm Begbies Traynor found no evidence that “Algol88” existed – at least in the sense that it was marketed to investors.
“While it was initially assumed that Algol88 was a piece of software, we have since received conformation that it is actually a very short set of trading rules,” it stated.
The report also noted that around £3.5 million was paid to early investors in 2019, which equated to 41% of the amount invested by bondholders to that date.
The sheer value of payments being made to introducers [early investors] could be seen as a typical hallmark of a Ponzi scheme,” the report suggested.
Earlier this month, Bentley was banned from acting as a company director in the UK for 11 years under British corporate governance laws.
While he has not been accused of fraud, the criminal investigation into Bentley Global by Essex Police is ongoing.
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