30+ Unregulated Gambling Sites Targeting Young UK Men, Entain Finds

The content is embedded in the everyday feeds they already scroll, and with the World Cup underway, unregulated markets are looking to exploit users. ^[1]

Hiding in Plain Sight

Conducted in May 2026 by independent open-source intelligence (OSINT) researchers, the study logged 72 instances of UK-facing promotion across more than 30 unregulated gambling websites. ^[1]

These unregulated platforms included well-known names like Stake, Rainbet, and Duelbits, and spanned across seven platforms: Kick, Instagram, X, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitch. ^[1]

What’s uncomfortable about this is that black-market gambling isn’t something consumers seek out. It’s something that has an “always on” presence, woven into their everyday content feeds. ^[1]

Celebrities and AI Workarounds

Well-known celebrities are even part of this unregulated promotional attack. Global names in football, like Sergio Agüero, Eden Hazard and Iker Casillas, act as ambassadors for offshore brands. ^[1]

Adding to this, researchers discovered AI-generated YouTube personas teaching users how to bypass gambling restrictions via VPN and identity-verification workarounds. This is likely to be part of the coordinated promotion. ^[1]

Kick is mentioned as the “Central Hub” of the illegal gambling influencer ecosystem as well. The platform has very little age verification to view this type of content. It also acts as a ‘clip farm’ for content to be redistributed to short-form platforms like YouTube Shorts and TikTok. ^[1]