Fans attending last month’s India tour of Sri Lanka came for the gentlemen's game, but their experience was more akin to a gambling den. Rishabh Pant’s batting and Mohammed Siraj’s bowling were marred by bright, flashing boundary boards and digital screens emblazoned with brands like 1xBat, Parimatch, and BatBricks7.
The flood of gambling ads has de facto official approval, even though SLC says it “does not permit betting advertising at SLC matches within the territory of Sri Lanka”.
A former SLC official explained that SLC contracts with sports promotion companies. These companies then sublicense their rights to betting companies. After years of refusing to respond to RTIs (they don’t consider themselves a public entity), SLC shared incomplete details of their contracts in response to our RTI request.
ITW Universe, an Indian sports consulting company, holds ground sponsorship and national team jersey rights in bilateral matches. Their contract runs for five years, from 2023 until March 2027. IPG, also a sports consulting company but based in Dubai, has all event rights for Lanka Premier League, LPL, matches.
These companies in turn sublicense to those seeking advertising space which then appear on LED screens, boundary lines, and broadcasts. Some, like Munchee and Damro, are innocuous.
Others aren’t. During ODI matches, boundary lines are covered with advertising for 1xBat. During the LPL, Galle Gallants’ jerseys were branded with Babu88, and Melbat — code for Melbet — took over the boundary line.
By associating with established cricket leagues, these betting sites build trust. SLC refused to share the exact value of the ITW and IPG sponsorships. However, their annual reports show that SLC signed for at least 1.9 billion rupees from ITW and 3.2 billion rupees from IPG.
SLC can’t just pass the buck to these two companies. Their marketing division approves every design displayed during matches. They’re intentionally choosing to allow illegal betting advertising. SLC’s marketing manager and CEO didn’t respond to a request for comment.
SLC’s new interim board is still looking into the body’s connections with betting companies, said Eran Wickramaratne, the interim board’s president. “We need to explore whether we can actually block them (IPG and ITW) from getting help from those betting companies… The controversy will be if those betting sites are legal in their countries.”
Regulatory grey zone
Betting companies are also exploiting regulatory grey zones in Sri Lanka. Old laws regulating gambling and betting didn’t have provisions for online betting — it didn’t exist back then. When digital betting began, legacy companies with old licenses like Sporting Times simply expanded their operations online.
The new Gambling Regulatory Authority Act, passed last year, covers online gambling too. But as it repealed the old law, and the new regulator still isn’t fully operational and able to issue licenses, new gambling and betting sites operate in a regulatory vacuum.
Earlier this month the Gambling Regulatory Authority, in its first major enforcement of the law, asked the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to block 146 offshore online gambling sites like 1xBet. Despite the illegality of many of the companies and the gambling regulator’s recent crackdown, SLC still hasn’t complied with the law. In the matches they hosted with India last month, 1xBat, 1xBet’s Indian brand name, was the platinum sponsor.
Sri Lanka’s betting rights target Indians
Countries like India completely banned online gambling last year. India’s IT minister claimed that one in three Indians were harmed by the “predatory” practice. Several websites are also banned in Pakistan. In order to continue to target South Asian sports fans, betting companies pay for high-visibility exposure during Sri Lanka’s biggest cricket events.
At the SLC matches, some platforms like 1xBet and Melbet deploy different brand names like 1xBat and Melbat to skirt anti-betting crackdowns. Many like Taj777 and Babu88 primarily target Indians, Bangladeshis, and Nepalis.
