Chelsea Football Club And Another Betting Partnership!
If I said to you that within three clicks of my mouse I can get from a promotional image of Reece James to placing a bet on a 17 year old Mongolian esports gamer, would you be surprised?
It’s rare for a week to go by in football without a football related betting or crypto-betting partnership being announced. A quick goggle news search today brings up two straight off the bat.
Charlton Athletic x Tangobet - The clubs website going onto say “Charlton Athletic are delighted to announce a new partnership with Tangobet, who will become the club's official betting partner for the remainder of the 2024/25 season and the entirety of the 2025/26 season. “
Chelsea FC x Roobet - The Blues official website stating “Roobet hops on board as official betting partner in Latin America and Canada.”
Club captain Reece James is joined by Spanish International team mates Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanchez on the promotional poster featured within the clubs announcement.
Anthony Brennan, co-founder and head of partnerships for Roobet going onto say: ‘Bringing the evolution of iGaming to the world in partnership with Chelsea will continue to elevate the unique experience that Roobet offers to our players.’
Roobet added to a growing list of betting partnerships struck by Chelsea, joining Betway and Msport.
Who are Roobet?
At the bottom of the Roobet.com website you find the following “Robot is a brand name of Raw Entertainment B.V, Reg No 157205, having its registered address at Korporaalweg 10, Curacao, licensed to conduct online gaming operations by the Government of Curacao under license OGL/2024/687/0427.
Raw Entertainment Ltd, Reg No HE421735, having its registered address at Voukourestiou, 25, Neptune House, 1st Floor, Flat/Office11, Zakaki, 3045, Limassol, Cyprus is a company of the Roobet group that acts as a paying and operational agent on behalf of Raw Entertainment B.V.
Roobet does not have a UK Gambling Commission licence but is easily accessible via a VPN and Gmail account.
Once you get onto the Roobet website you will quickly notice the presence of the Chelsea partnership.
The crypto betting website also offering to “double your winnings” for any Chelsea fans who bet on the Chelsea games (Image below). Dangling a carrot by then going onto to offer match tickets and signed kits.
To also celebrate the partnership Chelsea and Roobet released a launch video. Chelsea via their official website (accessible with a VPN) and Rooert via their X account (available in the UK - photos below).
The video starts with dramatic football commentary before it switches to numerous Chelsea players shouting Roooobettt!, ending with the audio of Chelsea fans singing their clubs name.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) issued a checklist which provides a overview of the steps that marketers should take to lessen the possibility of their gambling advertisement appealing ‘strongly’ to under-18s.
It is prohibited for an ad to have ‘strong’ appeal to under-18s, irrespective of its appeal to adults, the check list puts“UK footballers who play for top clubs, UK national teams or in high-profile competition” as “High-Risk” to under 18’s.
Roobet are targeting audiences in locations outside of the UK, however, as the ad and videos show, they are advertising in the UK.
Counter-Striker 2
Roobet, like many betting companies, allows betting on eSports competitions. One of the most popular games which host professional tournaments attracting betting platforms, like Roobot, is Counter-Strike 2 (CS2).
CS2 is free-to-play first-person shooter game (think Goldeneye if you were born in the 80’s). Although free-to-play, Valve Corp. the creators of CS2, reportedly earned over $1 billion dollars in 2023 from CS2. Most of the revenue coming from in-game purchasing of keys for controversial “loot boxes”.
Depending on the time of the day there is close to 1-1.8 million people likely to be playing Counter Strike 2 on Steam, an online gaming platform (also owned by Valve Corp.).
CS2 professional tournaments are played throughout the year, across the globe, attracting major sponsorships, quite often betting brands. Winners rewarded from large cash prize pots.
A few examples of major tournaments include the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 which took place in December 2024. The China based tournament had a prize pool of $1.25m, with the winner picking up $0.5m. The tournament had peak viewings of 1.3m people with a whopping 32.8 million viewing hours in total.
Another tournament closer to home being the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 which took place at OVO Arena Wembley in June 2024. Prize money for the London based tournament was $425K, with the winner picking up $200K. Online viewing peaking at over 600,000 live streams.
The winning team of both tournaments was the 5 person strong Team Spirit. MVP for both tournaments was a then 17 year old Russian, Danil “Donk”Kryshkovets.
Unlike English football, Donk, during the GGBET sponsored tournament (Bottom 2 photos) was allowed to wear his team colours with a betting company (BetBoom) as the front of shirt sponsor (Photos below). He was also allowed to be photographed against other betting advertisements (Photo top right). When the below photos were taken Danil was only 17.
Another child currently flying high in the world of esports in 17 year old Ayush “Mzinho” Batbold from Mongolia. Playing for the “Mongolz” CS2 pro team.
Roobet offering over 50 different types of bets on the Mongolz next match. No issues with promoting bets on a team fronted by a child.
If branding a minor with betting logos was not enough, multiple betting companies were allowing bets to be placed on Donk, Mzinho and their teams.
Like football matches the live gaming streams are plastered with betting advertisements, prompting viewers to bet on the teams involved in the Counter Strike 2 tournaments.
Counter-Strike 2 has been rated by major rating boards as follows:
ESRB (North America): Mature (M) – 17 years and older
PEGI (Europe): 18 years and older
So there you have it three degrees of operation between Chelsea FC and betting on a 17 year old gamer.
Chelsea Club Site.
Roobet Link .
CS2 Tournament Betting.
Chelsea FC and Roobet were approached for comment.