Unregulated gambling advertisements using Jude Bellingham’s name appear to share technical infrastructure with a major Premier League football sponsor, according to a new investigation.
The ads, which surfaced on Meta-owned Instagram, falsely claimed the England and Real Madrid midfielder had launched a new betting app ahead of the World Cup.
The fake promotion included an AI-generated BBC article describing the fictitious platform as “Britain’s most honest betting app,” alongside a range of generous sign-up bonuses.
Entain’s PR director Simon Clare first drew wider attention to the campaign by posting about it on X, calling out Meta’s continued acceptance of advertising spend from unlicensed operators.
Clare wrote: “I’m guessing Jude Bellingham hasn’t launched a betting app, and that wasn’t a story on the BBC.”
He added: “But don’t worry Meta – you keep taking the advertising spend from black market bookies breaking all the ASA rules and legal UK bookie licensing conditions.”
Following Clare’s post and subsequent trade media coverage, the ads were removed from circulation and are no longer visible in the Meta Ad Library.
Sources familiar with black market tactics noted that such campaigns typically disappear within days, as advertisers pull or rotate them before attracting significant regulatory attention.
The ads were also deliberately targeted at specific users to minimise public visibility, with a throwaway domain used as the landing destination to make tracing more difficult.
An investigation then identified a number of technical and licensing overlaps between the brand promoted through the fake Bellingham ads and systems associated with a major international gambling operator that sponsors a Premier League club.
Within the casino environment linked to by the Instagram ads, licensing references were observed indicating use of a Curaçao regulatory framework also utilised by a range of third-party casino brands.
Some of those third-party brands appear to carry relationships with the wider operator in question, though the precise nature of those relationships has not been independently verified.
Separately, a recurring technical identifier found within the destination site’s source code was also observed across other online gambling environments linked to the same broader operator ecosystem.
Investigators acknowledged this identifier may relate to shared suppliers, platform tooling, or third-party service providers, rather than direct operational involvement from any named company.
The findings do not establish operational control or any formal connection between the operator and the Bellingham promotion, and the operator has not been named at this stage of the inquiry.
The investigation stated clearly it is not suggesting the operator commissioned, approved, or was even aware of the advertising activity tied to the fake Bellingham campaign.
This story emerges as the UK gambling black market has become a central topic in domestic policy debate, particularly following government proposals to nearly double online casino taxation.
Critics of that tax plan have argued the increase risks driving consumers toward unlicensed operators, making the black market a key lobbying focus for the British gambling industry.
The Dutch online gaming trade association VNLOK also signalled this week that it intends to sue Meta over its failure to clamp down on illegal gambling advertisements appearing on the platform.
Meanwhile, Entain has been leading licensed sector efforts to combat illegal gambling activity, including a recent initiative targeting trademarks registered in the UK by black market brands.
