‘Soft Power or Soft Touch? Illegal sports streaming and black-market gambling undermine British standards’

Britain likes to think of itself as a global standard-setter: a leader in regulation, sport, and consumer protection. Yet when it comes to illegal online streaming and black-market gambling, the UK is increasingly acting less like a soft power and more like a soft touch.

Illegal online gambling adverts appear on 89% of illegal streams of the top ten sports targeting British audiences. In 2024 alone, there were around 3.1 billion illegal sports streams lasting over 90 seconds, with a further 1.6 billion in the first half of 2025. Accessing illegal streams dramatically increases the risk of being hacked or scammed, as well as falling into the trap of gambling on illegal sites. 

The above figures are from a report by intelligence platform Yield Sec on illegal sports streaming. This follows a Yield Sec report on the UK gambling black market that showed it was largely driven by underage gamblers and people who had self-excluded from the legal market. The Treasury announced in the Budget that it would provide dedicated funds to the Gambling Commission to control this black market. 

READ MORE: ‘Higher gambling tax at last’

But Gambling Commission executive Tim Miller has dismissed concerns about black market activity by Commission licensees outside Great Britain claiming “We are not the world’s policemen.” This is despite one of the Commission’s licensing objectives requiring the prevention of association of gambling with crime. The Commission has produced a weak series of reports on illegal online gambling, as detailed in a report I commissioned. 

The Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology published an ‘Illegal Gambling Website Identification Tool’ (developed with the Commission) purporting to offer a novel methodology, ignoring the established capacity of gambling intelligence platforms.  

A recent Guardian article detailed how Ollie Long, who took his own life, had self-excluded from legal gambling, only to be drawn into gambling on illegal sites. His sister Chloe expressed how abusive, malicious and morally incomprehensible these sites are, describing the highly addictive predatory systems that stole from Ollie his money, peace, future and ultimately his life.   

Ollie Long’s inquest came shortly after another gambling-related suicide inquest, that of Lee Adams. His family had called for gambling disorder to be considered at inquests, to which the Ministry of Justice responded: “Simply asking coroners to record motivation would not provide a reliable picture, as they are often working with incomplete information.”  

Despite the obvious health concerns, gambling sits under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). UK football is increasingly being used to promote gambling companies that profit from black-market-style operations in other countries. Some clubs have marketing deals with gambling sites, such as Stake, which are not licensed in the UK and DCMS appears content to let that continue. The rapper Drake is facing legal action in the US for promoting the unlicensed Stake, which the lawsuit says is a criminal organisation.          

Illegal streamers abuse the affection for UK sports internationally, acting in unison with illegal gambling pirates in jurisdictions that function as regulatory safe harbours. It is embarrassing that this digital exploitation, a modern form of virtual colonialism, is tolerated.  

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DCMS and the Foreign Office jointly oversee the UK Soft Power Council, a welcome initiative established in early 2025. Hopefully the Council will recognise how lax the Commission and DCMS have been in allowing gambling harms and criminality to flourish. 

Politics is changing rapidly. Nigel Farage and Grainne Hurst, the CEO of trade lobbyist the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), cosied up together at the Reform Party Conference. Farage recently echoed BGC rhetoric claiming there would be no betting shops left in a year because of the impending tax increase. Reform are currently favourites to win the next general election. 

Politicians supporting the gambling sector tried to force the Chancellor to make a statement on the impact of gambling tax increases, but were defeated. They must not have read the NERA report which shows how economically detrimental online gambling is to the wider economy. 

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If Labour is to enjoy another term, it must be confident and innovative enough to escape the malign influences of inertia and vested interests.Self-serving arms length bodies, such as the Gambling Commission, lack adequate accountability and transparency, using consultations to create delays. I share the frustration expressed by Sir Keir Starmer to the Liaison Committee.

Changing this culture of complacency would be a very powerful legacy. 

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