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Gulf Giants’ Associate Sponsor Lotus365 Lands In A Legal Soup

Online gambling brand Lotus365 recently featured in the banned domains list by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). They recently partnered with Gautam Adani-owned Gulf Giants’ which features in the International League T20 as the team’s associate sponsor. The UAE-based franchise had joined hands with the online gambling brand and announced it on their social media. 

We are extremely happy to announce a new addition to our #Giant family!

Lotus 365 News joins us as the Associate Sponsor for #DPWorldILT20. 🤝#BringItOn #ALeagueApart #Cricket #Adani @ILT20Official pic.twitter.com/t6JqDLgPAT

— Gulf Giants 🦅 (@GulfGiants) January 14, 2023

It is worth noting that Adani Group is one of India’s largest conglomerates, led by Gautam Adani, one of the richest men in the world. There has been a trend amongst portals like Lotus365 to operate via surrogate structures to keep legal woos at bay in India as betting and gambling is banned across the nation.

By partnering with Indian entities based overseas, brands like Lotus365 strive to create legitimacy. Lotus365 alongside brands like ACC and Ambuja Cements feature on the jersey of Gulf Giants. Similarly, Pari Match was earlier the principal sponsor of MI Cape Town, the affiliate team of iconic five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians.

Why companies like Lotus365 are in trouble?  

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued two advisories that have ordered print and digital media to avoid any kind of promotions or advertisements that involve online betting and gambling platforms. In October last year, for the first time, MEITY had blocked access to several betting domains including Pari Match and Lotus365.

SA 20 and IL T20 have considerable participation in India. All teams participating in SA20 and three out of six teams in IL T20 are owned by Indian entities. Additionally, the viewers of these leagues are also majorly Indians, which makes the team sponsorships an easy and attractive deal to target the Indian audience.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) recently indicated a red flag with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It claimed that the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) was being misused by the betting platforms, which is prohibited and thus these companies were involved in significant tax evasion.

A senior government official was reported saying that banned betting and gambling websites, as well as Chinese-operated loan apps have been given a window of 48 hours by the IT ministry to prove if their authenticity.

A senior IT ministry official familiar with the matter reportedly told The Telegraph, “The ban has been imposed on the platforms because their businesses were not genuine. Why would there be any ban if they were genuine? Action has been taken on them.”

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A total of 138 betting and gambling websites were blocked by MeitY recently because of an emergency request made by a nodal officer of the Home Ministry. Some of the most notorious offshore betting websites were included in these, as they were promoting gambling and betting, which is illegal in the country, and were also acting as a medium for money laundering.

These websites included Dafabet, Betway, 1xBet and Lotus365, which often use surrogate advertisement and promotion methods to redirect users to their gambling websites.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcast (I&B Ministry) has also sent several advisories to online OTT and cable TV service providers directing them not to air advertisements of these betting websites. After the TV and social media advertisements were restricted, these illegal betting websites began using traditional methods like print advertisements and sponsoring overseas sports leagues, which were popular in India.

As per All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), these websites end up spending over ₹3,500 Crore every year on advertising across multiple channels. They also spend ₹500 Crore additionally for paying celebrity endorsement fees for their surrogate brands.

For more fantasy sports news and poker promotions, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram. 

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