By Bitcoin News | Created at 2026-10-03 00:00:57 | Updated at 2026-10-03 01:27:17
1 hour ago
The Guardian reviewed a contract showing that a racing and esports content supplier majority-owned by three of Britain’s biggest bookmakers signed a revenue-sharing deal with Santeda, an offshore operator whose brands include Mystake. The deal surfaced in documents from the “Casino Secrets” leak of Curaçao’s gambling regulator.
Key Takeaways
- SIS, majority-owned by Ladbrokes, William Hill and Betfred’s owner, signed a 2022 deal with Santeda.
- The leaked contract gave SIS 18% of gambling revenue on racing bets across five offshore brands.
- The bookmakers warn of the black market, yet SIS has paid about $49 million in dividends since.
An 18% Cut of Offshore Revenue
Filed under Santeda’s entry in the public leak archive, the 17-page agreement is an amended and restated contract dated Oct. 11, 2022, replacing an April 2022 deal. In return for licensing its racing channels and data to five Santeda-run sites, Sports Information Services (SIS) took 18% of the gross gambling revenue on its racing products and 13% on esports. The agreement ran for two years, then renewed automatically until either side gave three months’ notice.
SIS supplies betting sites with live horse racing, greyhound, and esports feeds, plus the data used to settle bets. Ladbrokes owns 23%, William Hill nearly 20%, and Betfred owner Fred Done holds 8%, according to the Guardian. The contract was among the thousands of files from Curaçao’s licensing portal that German hacker Lilith Wittmann published last month.
The contract does not allow use of SIS content in the U.K. Santeda’s license from Curaçao does not cover the U.K. or the U.S., but a previous Guardian investigation found Santeda sites illegally targeting U.K. customers, including through affiliate sites pitching them to gamblers who had self-excluded from licensed betting. Santeda’s filings also include a crypto risk policy, dated September 2024, that requires deposit and withdrawal wallets to be screened, a control Curaçao has since ordered all its crypto casinos to adopt.
It is not clear whether the deal is still active or how much SIS earned from it. SIS declined to say whether it had been terminated. A spokesperson said all customers agree to “only offer SIS products where it is legal to do so,” and that SIS takes “corrective action” up to and including terminating contracts when terms are breached.
The bookmakers that own SIS have been among the loudest voices warning that higher taxes and tighter rules will push British gamblers to unlicensed offshore sites. SIS shareholders have received at least £37 million ($49 million) in dividends since the Santeda deal was signed, Companies House filings suggest.
Industry sources told the Guardian the bookmakers could not have known about the deal, because controls stop them from seeing commercially sensitive information about industry rivals. One source said they were “furious.” Ladbrokes owner Entain said it was “not a party to the commercial or customer arrangements SIS decides to strike,” adding that it takes the matter “very seriously and [has] raised our concerns to SIS.” William Hill owner Evoke and Done had not responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
“If the gambling industry is concerned about the black market, it needs to get its own house in order by cutting all ties with it,” said Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of gambling-blocking company Gamban.
The “Casino Secrets” leak has already drawn fire from Curaçao’s regulator, which called the breach “a serious breach under Curaçao law” in a Sept. 22 statement and said it would report it to the relevant authorities. Separately, Wittmann says she beat Malta’s gambling regulator in a Berlin court last week over an earlier hack of its systems, and the archive moved to a new domain after its original address was suspended.
