Published: 14.06.2019, 14:37
1 min read
Some people claim that gambling is akin to drugs. It seems like someone took the claim too literally, as the Russian customs have seized 400kg of cocaine bricks that had Bet365 logo placed on them.
On Tuesday, June 13th, Russia’s Federal Customs Service (FCS) has revealed its most recent discovery. According to them, $69.5m worth of cocaine was seized in a port in St. Petersburg. The most interesting part – most of the cocaine packages had a logo of Bet365 betting site plastered on them. Compressed bricks themselves had the word BET on them, as seen in the image above.
The packages came on a ship from Ecuador. Now, the authorities are trying to determine the likely recipient.
Interestingly enough, Bet365 has announced their plans to enter the Russian market last year. It was rumored that the company could get a license in the country in the first half of 2019. However, the market is saturated with competition. For example, companies like 1xbet or Parimatch are very-well established.
Could this bad PR come amidst the upcoming launch in Russia? Are the competitors somehow involved? Most likely not. Some other cocaine bricks had ‘VLTN’ stickers on them. This most likely refers to the Valentino fashion brand. Despite that, it’s rather unlikely that responsible gambling market players would even think about this. After all, the bad press might not be that bad for the brand in this case.
