Stream Teams: Battery Farming Sport For Bets

Bellingcat’s investigation details how 1xBet, a controversial gambling operator, live-streams industrial-scale amateur sports—short football, basketball, floorball, tennis, and more—from undisclosed venues geolocated across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, including at least one event featuring minors, to drive traffic and cross-sell users into higher-margin casino products. The report identifies venues via visual forensics, highlights third-party streaming facilitators, mirrors/redirects used to bypass blocks, and advertising on pirated content, while noting the company’s regulatory troubles and ongoing sponsorships with major football clubs.