CHAMPIONS TAKE GAMBLE WITH NEW PARTNERSHIP

AFTER a week in which Manchester City announced the highest commercial revenues in the history of English football, and publicly confirmed they remain under investigation by the Premier League over alleged financial irregularities, the Mail on Sunday has uncovered new anomalies in one of City’s most recent commercial partnerships.

The reigning league champions trumpeted a deal with gambling firm 8xBet in the summer as they introduced ‘a new regional partnership that will see the brand become the Official Betting Partner of the club in Asia’.

This was followed by Norwegian magazine Josimar asking about apparent contradictions in 8xBet’s claimed history, from when they were founded to who actually worked for them. Neither City nor

8xBet responded then.

A promotional video that announced Teddy Sheringham as an 8xBet ‘ambassador’ earlier this year was not intended to be anything but a ‘fictional narrative’, a source close to 8xBet says.

The video depicts a woman apparently representing 8xBet shaking hands on that contract. But the woman is actually a London-based model called Jasmine and holds no role at 8xBet.

Back in the summer, a LinkedIn profile of someone claiming to be 8XBet’s cofounder and CEO, Trinh Thu Trang, was deleted after it was shown her profile photo was a stock image. The MoS has established the same image was widely used across the internet, including on a sex site.

City provided the MoS with an email address for a man called Jet Zhu, the CEO of a Dubai-based marketing firm, QOO Global, and the de facto spokesman for 8xBet. Mr Zhu did not want to speak on the record but a source said the Trinh Thu Trang profile was ‘false’ and not posted by anyone from 8xBet.

The MoS requested a company HQ address for 8xBet and a phone number and no details have been forthcoming.