Sensational claim
MyStake CEO Andres Markou doesn’t exist and the images of him shaking hands with Brazilian soccer great Ronaldinho and inking a betting deal are all deepfaked, claims a sensational exposé from The Guardian.
casino group Santeda, a “secretive” firm behind MyStake
On Wednesday, the UK daily shared a co-investigation with journalist group Investigate Europe into the casino group Santeda International, a “secretive” firm behind MyStake and other illegal casinos allegedly targeting vulnerable gamblers in the UK.
The exposé claims images of Markou shaking hands with Ronaldinho are AI-generated fakes. It adds that the MyStake CEO, who posted an image of himself decorating a Christmas tree on X, “is a decoy, deflecting attention from the true faces behind a sophisticated network of illegal online casinos.”
The Guardian cited a source close to Ronaldinho as confirming the soccer star’s meeting with Markou never happened. Deepfake detection specialists Reality Defender stated the images of Markou “are highly likely to be either AI-generated or manipulated.”
The allegedly fictitious CEO and his very real iGaming brand is one of at least eight illegal online casino brands, including Velobet, Goldenbet and Rolletto, that are all easily accessible to UK bettors and allegedly linked to Santeda.
Vast operation
Wednesday’s claims are a continuation of an investigative journalism sting that revealed in March that the AI chatbots of Meta, Google, X, and Microsoft are allegedly promoting the use of illegal online casinos to at-risk social media users in the UK.
The blacklisted casinos led the journalists back to Curaçao-licensed Santeda, which The Guardian previously revealed holds the licenses for MyStake, Velobet, and Goldenbet, but takes payments via another subsidiary using the same name in Cyprus.
Analysis of Santeda company documents have now led journalists to Swiss gaming software services firm Upgaming AG, which it stated was operated by a group of Georgian nationals “who are quietly getting very rich.”
Until last week, UpGaming stated on its website that Santeda was one of the buyers of its gaming software services. Last week, UpGaming claimed it had severed all ties with Santeda, reportedly owing to Santeda’s “unregulated footprint in restricted jurisdictions.”
registered directly by Upgaming or Tornike Tvauri”
According to the exposé, site domain names for multiple Santeda casinos, including Velobet, were “registered directly by Upgaming or its chief executive, Tornike Tvauri.” The Georgian’s name also appears on domain registration details for affiliate management firm Affision.com, which has also been used by blacklisted brands MyStake and Velobet.
Under the spotlight
In its exposé, The Guardian stated that the multitude of illegal casinos were easy for bettors to find, but very hard for regulators to stop. In a thinly veiled call for an investigation into Tvauri, however, the daily said that if Markou was really the head of MyStake, “authorities across Europe could try to hold him to account.”
The illegal gambling sites that include popular slots like Play’n Go’s Rise of Merlin and Onlyplay-made Golden Piggy Farm have, according to the web traffic analyst Similarweb, attracted an average 2.3 million unique UK visitors per month from November 2025 to January.
Despite Upgaming’s cutting of ties with Santeda, British MPs, including Labour’s Alex Ballinger, are reportedly said to have questions about the organizational structures of the secretive firms they believe surround a “lucrative edifice” that “must not be allowed to stand.”
