Wolves could be forced to pull a new bitcoin lottery sponsorship deal amid growing concern about their new partner’s business background.
The Premier League club announced Crypto Millions Lotto as their official online lottery partner on Wednesday.
The organisation pledges to allow registered users to compete for a £23million jackpot prize and receive referral fees in bitcoin.
Headlines on the lottery’s homepage boast of their link-up with Wolves , who are in the Europa League.
But concerns are growing at Molineux after it emerged the CEO Sulim Malook was behind a failed company called Fat Cat Gaming.
It could prompt a review of Malook’s operating practises as he doesn’t have a UK gambling licence.
(Image: EMPICS Sport)
Crypto Millions Lotto’s parent company is Ofertas365 , based out of Curacao off the coast of Venezuela , which also launched ‘AfroMillionsLotto’ in Nigeria in 2017.
Its website no longer works with visitors given a chance to buy its domain name.
But Malook claims he has expanded and migrated the business to Crypto Millions Lotto which also draws on the German National Lottery numbers.
Yet scrutiny of Crypto Millions Lotto’s terms and conditions state pay-outs for “large winnings” depend on their insurance partner Lloyds paying up and could be suspended for up to two years, pending negotiations.
Molineux officials have since gone back to the outside agency, who recommended Malook’s latest company.
A previous business Fat Cat Gaming was launched in 2015 by crowd-funding platform fundedbyme with an investment of £8,500 in return for a 1% stake.
It promised users a free-to-play mobile game, called Lucky 6 but all hyper-links to its sites have been disabled.
Angry bloggers claim they were encouraged to promote the game in India in exchange for shares which were either worth little or tough to cash in.
Fundedbyme were contacted by MirrorSport and claimed not to have been in contact with Malook for “many years”.
Mirror Sport phoned Mr Malook for comment and he said: “I have done a contract with Wolves and signed it on behalf of our company (Ofertas365).
“I have paid them. A lot of people are very happy with it and I am happy with it.
“We don’t have a UK gambling licence but we aren’t doing business in the UK.”
Wolves earlier announced the deal with Steve Morton, head of commercial at Wolves, stating: “We’re delighted to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Wolves’ global reach across various platforms.
“We’re also excited to develop our relationship, which will also see the Wolves brand reach new audiences in Eastern Europe and South America.”
