Manchester City under pressure over Kremlin-backed sponsor

Manchester City football club faces scrutiny over its official global betting partner Marathonbet, which is approved by the Kremlin for its gambling operations in Russia.

Marathonbet, which was established in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 1997, is one of around 20 firms approved in Russia for betting, according to Kremlin federal tax office documents seen by the Observer.

The betting firm has announced it will no longer accept bets in the UK because of “recent and ongoing events in Europe”. Marathonbet had expanded its operations across Europe over the last decade and has been a sponsor of Manchester City for nearly four years.

The UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has urged sport clubs to review sponsorship deals after the invasion of Ukraine.

The department said in a statement posted last month: “Appropriate actions should be taken to limit sponsorship and other financial support from entities with links to the Russian or Belarusian states.”

The Premier League champions announced their first ever global betting partnership with Marathonbet in June 2018.

Under the deal, the firm agreed to provide branded betting kiosks for its fans, with its logos appearing throughout the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and on match-day interview backdrops.

It announced a new partnership in December 2019 to provide branding for the club’s training kit in a deal launched by manager Pep Guardiola and the now retired striker Sergio Agüero. The training kit deal ended last year, but the firm is still a club sponsor and the Marathonbet logo was still on the club’s website this weekend.

One source at Manchester City said on Friday the sponsorship deal was “coming to an end”, but the club was unable to provide