Betting companies entered and flourished in Pakistan during former prime minister Imran Khan's tenure: Report

Betting companies infiltrated Pakistan through the cricket board of the country under the tenure of former prime minister Imran Khan, according to a report in The News.

The revelation comes a week after the Pakistan government started a crackdown on 150 illegal betting surrogate brands that have presumably caused billions in losses to the country's economy.

The report states that in 2021 when Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) was in power and Ehsaan Mani was the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) president, a no-objection certificate (NOC) was issued to Dafa News - a prominent betting website. Subsequently, the company's ads started to appear in Pakistan cricket.

According to Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Dafa News is originally a betting company, recognised as ‘Dafabet’, 1XBET as 1XBat, WOLF111 as woLF111 and MELBET as MELBAT.

Since then, over 150 companies have started operations in the subcontinent nation. While these companies have become an intrinsic part of Pakistan's international cricket branding, four teams in the Pakistan Super League (the country's marquee T20 franchise tournament) have also onboarded the surrogate betting companies as their key sponsors.

The Pakistani government is of the view that the betting companies are inducing corruption in the sporting sector of the country and putting the economy into further turmoil by getting people addicted to gambling.

Pak govt's advice falls on deaf ears

PCB has been advised by the government to immediately terminate its contract with Dafa News and others. However, the board is yet to take any call saying no order has come from the government.

“They have advised us. There was no command or order," a PCB spokesperson was quoted as saying by the publication.

“Time will decide about the fate of our agreements with such companies as nothing has been proved so far. For now, the PCB is trying its best to keep itself distant from any betting company," the spokesperson added.

Notably, gambling is strictly prohibited in Islam and banned across the country. However, using surrogate means and promoting themselves as fantasy platforms, these companies are working around the law.

(With inputs from agencies)