UK WhatsApp Bookies Exposed: Illegal Gambling Syndicates Using Messaging Apps

The UKGC closed an illegal WhatsApp gambling den on December 9, with the bookie running up a debt of nearly £270,000. Haydon Simock, who ran the operations between 2023 and 2024, ran “The Post Bookmakers”, which had over 1,000+ customers at its peak, and the betting syndicate used the popular messaging and video calling app, WhatsApp. While newsworthy, the big headline here isn’t the Stoke on Trent based illegal bookmaker, but rather the alarming volume of illegal gambling syndicates that use WhatsApp and similar platforms like Telegram, Discord, Signal, and WeChat.

Gaming regulators and authorities have closed down on illegal betting operators this year, with countless heightened betting regulation, blocking domains, tightening operator licensing policies, and restricting payment services, among many other measures. But the majority of those measures target iGaming and sports betting sites that, may or may not, hold licensure abroad and are not locally licensed. They operate out of what analysts call the gray market. Placing bets on WhatsApp and similar platforms is far dodgier, and dangerous to punters and gamers alike.

UKGC Catches WhatsApp Syndicate

The UK Gambling Commission disclosed on December 9 how it caught an illegal WhatsApp bookie, which ran between October 203 and September 2024. The Gambling Commission, in partnership with the Staffordshire Police, launched an investigation into the Stoke on Trent gambling firm, The Post Bookmakers. The syndicate, run by Haydon Simcock who was a former manager of a racing ownership syndicate, provided gambling facilities without a proper license and had built an underground betting establishment in the heart of the UK.

At one point, he had over 1,000 customers and employed 10 workers, providing UK bettors with bets. The wagers were sourced from some of the top UK bookies, such as bet365, Paddy Power, Sky Bet and William Hill, with The Post Bookmakers providing screenshots of bet slips for their customers. The operation ultimately collapsed when a former racehorse owner lost £269,000 to The Post Bookmakers.

The Birmingham Magistrate’s Court found Simcock guilty. He was charged with a 30-week suspended jail sentence, a 200-hour community service order, and he must pay £230,000 back to the victim, and £60,000 in costs to the UK Gambling Commission.

The Post Bookmakers’ Operation

The Post Bookmakers ran a syndicate that invited people to gamble on WhatsApp. The bookie set up gambling accounts, collected the cash from the customers, and then placed the ordered bets. The bookmaker could offer customers bookie bonuses, select bets on agreed odds and deliver a full-on VIP gambling experience for their users.

Simcock told the courts that a lot of the customers were owners, trainers and racing managers within horse racing. People who couldn’t place bets at a bookie because they have an influence or insider information regarding the horse race bets Simcock was offering. This black market activity, by his own accord, increased when the UKGC implemented affordability checks, and pushed a lot of bettors towards black market operators.

How Messaging App Syndicates Work

These types of betting syndicates either offer personal bookmaking or broker-style betting to customers. With personal bookie models, the syndicate acts as the bookmaker. They set the odds, take the bets, track balances, and pay winners from their own pool of funds. This is quite common with WhatsApp betting syndicates, community based betting rings, and “friend of a friend” networks.

The broker style betting model is a larger opeeration. With these, the operator does not take the risks themselves, but instead acts as a middleman. They forward bets to underground bookmakers or gray market sites, and use spreads, commissions, rebate abuse or volume-based deals with external operators to get their cut.

The messaging apps act as the perfect medium to connect these black market operators to their customers. After all, if you have end to end encryption, instant group broadcasts, private channels and voice notes for odds, they can deliver all the information to a customer without exposing themselves. The Post Bookmakers was a personal bookie style operation. The company provided the liability, personally managed customer balances and settlements, and placed bets for customers on reputable UK bookies. Such as William Hill, bet365, Paddy Power and Sky Bet.

The Matthew Bowyer Case in Nevada

The Post Bookmakers had to supply the liability. They ran up a debt of nearly £270,000 and couldn’t find a way to reimburse the client, thus leading to the illegal gambling syndicate’s exposure and downfall.

It is not too dissimilar from the Matthew Bowyer case in Nevada – where Bowyer ran an unlicensed gambling business and accepted wagers from over 700 bettors. He also ran a personal bookie style operation, taking the bets to Las Vegas Strip casinos, and laundering money through other people’s bank accounts to keep it undetected. He was found of running an illegal gambling business, money laundering and creating false tax returns.

Offshore Betting Sites Vs Underground Gambling

Underground syndicates generally keep their entire operations off-grid. There are no websites authorities can block, domains they can seize, or central companies to blacklist. All the gambling happens on encrypted servers or chats, making it very difficult to trace.

Offshore sites can fall into two brackets. One are the completely unregulated sites, which don’t abide to any laws, provide players or bettors with gambling products that are not legally tested for fairness, and they tend to use suspicious payment methods to manage transactions. The other are the legal operators who hold iGaming licenses in foreign countries. While technically legal, they may target consumers in jurisdictions where they don’t have the local permissions or licensure. These sites operate out of the gray area, where you are getting a product that is provably fair and licensed abroad, but doesn’t have a local presence in your market, and it doesn’t hold an iGaming license in your country.

Through tightened security, sharing cross border data, clamping down on payment methods and blocking domains, gambling regulators can cut players off from the offshore/internationally regulated gambling sites. Yet for the WhatsApp or Telegram groups, the procedure is not as straightforward.

Social Betting – Illegal Or Not?

Because these wagers and gambles are made under the radar. It is just like if you play poker for cash between friends, make a private pool for a fantasy contest, or place wagers against your peers – with the hope that everyone will keep their end of the deal.

Social pools and wagers are not explicitly illegal in all countries, and they are tolerated at lower levels. Just this year, Michigan rolled out laws to legalize small scale social betting pools and wagers. Under the law (which is pending approval), you can make pools of up to 100 people, with max wagers fixed at $25 per person, and the organizers must also be involved in the pool.

It is worlds apart from looking for a private bookie to place bets for you, or using brokers to access bookies you are blocked from or to get deposit bonuses.

What Types of Products Underground Syndicates Offer

The most advanced underground betting syndicates can provide all kinds of gambling products with no legal oversight. Some may use big brand bookies to source the wagers, but others may source them from peer to peer betting exchanges, foreign gambling sites, or prediction markets. That is, if they are not supplying the bets – liability, bonuses, special odds, and all – themselves.

For instance, there could be syndicates that offer special props wagers, betting opportunities on niche events, and more. These operators have no consumer protection, have no accreditation for fairness, and are not held accountable by a gambling authority. Meaning, if they refuse to pay you out, you cannot escalate your dispute to an authority.

WhatsApp may be the most common medium for illegal bookmaking in the UK, but for larger scale operations, or global ones, Telegram is one of the most noteworthy. Discord and Signal are emerging as alternatives in the US, and in China, WeChat is one of the biggest.

How Regulators Are Fighting Illegal Betting Syndicates

The UKGC has upped its player security measures and has come down harder on unlicensed or illegal activity. Last month it even revoked game software provider Spribe’s UK gambling license, as the vendor provided games without having the proper clearances and permissions to do so. Yet the privacy and hidden nature of illegal bookies is not so straightforward to tackle, and requires diligent payment monitoring, tracking registered customers (as private bookies may have legal betting accounts at licensed sportsbooks), and hunting rogue operators.

The actual portion of the UK’s black market that does use these illicit bookmakers is also incredibly difficult to estimate, as there are no records or traces of these transactions – unlike internationally regulated betting sites that have to report to foreign regulators. However, through education programmes, public awareness campaigns and more crackdowns like the Post Bookmakers, the message is slowly yet surely delivered to punters. Illegal bookmaker syndicates cannot promise to pay out punters, and sooner or later, they are caught and go bust.