Cardiff City in trouble over shirt sponsor

Unlicensed online gaming company 777ball has run into trouble with the Gambling Commission over a shirt sponsorship deal with Championship football side Cardiff City. 777ball has a bit of a history in the UK when it was part of Betonsports which was broken up after being accused of breaching US laws. Since then 777ball which is based in Manila in the Philippines has been sold back to Asian private investors and the majority of their action is in the Chinese market. In fact 777ball.co.uk works with mainly Chinese script so is unlikely to be of interest to Irish gamblers. Advertising of a gaming company is not allowed unless the company has a UK gaming license and until that is acquired, Cardiff City have been forced to remove the logo from their shirts Obtaining a license will also not be as simple as just applying as the Philippines does not appear  on the UK “white list”. The “white list” includes only Antigua and Barbuda, Isle of Man, Tasmania and Alderney so unless companies are registered in the EU or one of these countries they are unable to acquire a license. It is believed that representatives from 777ball are flying in to try to resolve the situation but Cardiff City Chairman Mr Peter Ridsdale said “we are in discussions with others who are interested in sponsorship. I’m confident that we will be able to replace them if we are unable to resolve this to everyone’s satisfaction”. Not exactly a vote of confidence we would suggest but a caution to us all not to get involved with small unknown companies in the online casino world.