Black Market Bypasses UK Controls, Flutter Report Warns

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The recent report from Flutter UK & Ireland shows that the UK's fight against the illegal market faces significant challenges. Ongoing efforts like the Betting and Gambling Council (BGC)’s interactive quiz, upcoming cryptocurrency regulations, removal of offshore URLs from search results are only a small part of the UK regulatory measures implemented. But the increase of black market share from 2% to 9% shows the existing gaps.

ID Verification on Illegal Platforms Fails

Keynote speaker of numerous counter fraud conferences, CEO of Reform Courses on fraud awareness, Alex Wood, carried out research on the black market. He revealed that UK punters can freely sign up and make payments on illegal casino sites using fake entities. The results of attempts to sign up were striking:

• Wood registered as Harry Skelton, Willie Mullins, among other racing figures, to create accounts. 
• Live chat managers ignored the fact that he attempts to gamble under GAMSTOP.
• One site allowed him to create a profile of a 6-year-old child living at Buckingham Palace.

The investigation mainly touched the brands operating under Santeda International B.V., namely MyStake, VeloBet, and CosmoBet. These and other illegal platforms don’t question whether they accept vulnerable or underage individuals. It seems that the source of funds doesn’t matter as well. One can make payments from credit cards and cryptowallets. Wood stressed how appealing these sites may be for the UK audience seeking a way to bypass regulatory restrictions.

Social Media & Influencers Drive People to Black Market

Influencer marketing on social media platforms plays a big role in expanding the reach of illegal operators and helping them drive new audiences. Despite the adjustments in ad policies, people still see gambling content that carries unrealistic winning expectations.

Apart from that, Alex Wood revealed that sometimes transactions to illegal sites occur directly in Instagram, not redirecting users to third-party payment sites. Widespread British banks and payment channels freely approve transactions to and from offshore sites. Although these have to be flagged as gambling-related and blocked.

Offshore Market Share Is 9%, And Is Yet To Grow

All the findings confirm the weakness of all measures taken against the illegal gambling sites. As of 2025, offshore sites occupied 9% of the total gambling market. The share was estimated at just 0.43% in 2020. Such reports predict that the 2026 value will be even higher.

While legal operators continue to face regulatory constraints, government and regulatory bodies should focus more on reducing the scale of the illegal market. Strengthening oversight of social media advertising and tightening payment processing controls may be the key steps to reducing the influence of the black market.