World News.Week 51

🙏🇯🇵 JAPAN: Promoters of illegal casinos buy up domains of abandoned anime websites

Animation studio Asahi Production (Tokyo) warned fans on December 10 that the official website of the anime *Onsen Yōsei Hakone-chan* (2015) had been hijacked to promote offshore iGaming operators. The domain was abandoned in 2019 and resold in 2021 to a third party from Kumamoto. The site is disguised as a blog with posts like “Hakone plays online casino,” plus links to no-deposit bonuses. CasinoBeats

Previously affected: “Kaitou Reinya” (2010), “Rokka no Yuusha” (2015), and the mobile game “Blue Reflection Sun” (shut down in 2024). Scheme: wait for domain expiration → buy it → clone the original site → embed gambling ads. Read more

⚡️🇷🇴 ROMANIA: Betano becomes the main sponsor of the wheelchair basketball championship

Betano signed a long-term agreement with the Romanian Paralympic Committee. The operator will become the title sponsor of the national championship in Sibiu and donate 20 wheelchairs to the OncoHelp association. Focus: infrastructure, training, and equipment for adaptive sports. *iGaming News* Read more

🔄⚽️ 1xBet and 22Bet use FIFA+ streams for live betting on lower leagues

Play the Game: in October-November 2025, bookmakers used FIFA+ broadcasts (Aruba, Curaçao, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Seychelles) for live betting. Over 100 domestic league matches. National federations were not informed. Streams had 10+ second delays → local scouts (€ 30−50 per match) collected stats for Sportradar/Genius Sports. Tribuna Read more

🇪🇸🥅 Iker Casillas named new global ambassador for Stake (Road to WC 2026)

The Real Madrid and Spain legend (65M followers) will front Stake’s campaign through the 2026 World Cup. Content includes match analysis, behind-the-scenes footage, and exclusives. Stake CMO: “Casillas is a bridge between top-tier sport and digital.” Stake Read more

🔄🎮 Valve bans skin gambling at CS2 tournaments

TOR update (December 9): a complete ban on skin-betting logos (Skin.Club, Hellcase), case openers, and skin traders (Kinguin) on jerseys, banners, and broadcasts. Applies to all tournaments (ranked and unranked). Cash betting (casino, sportsbook) remains allowed. Dust2 Read more

🔍🇪🇺 European Commission vs Google: scraping content for AI without payments

A formal antitrust investigation: Google is using publishers’ and YouTube content for AI Overviews/AI Mode without compensation. Traffic is falling, and opting out is not possible. YouTube: creators must share videos for Google AI, but not for competitors. Fortune Read more

⚡️🇺🇸 Kalshi and Polymarket promote fake sports insiders

Prediction markets are hiring fake “reporters” on X. Scott Hughes (Kalshi partner) turned into a parody after going viral. Emma Vance (“lead Polymarket reporter”) published fake news and Polymarket charts (Penn State, Lane Kiffin). Polymarket officially promoted her. Awful Announcing Read more