An AI Deepfake of Bruno Fernandes Posed as a Brand Ambassador for an Unlicensed Casino

Illegal Operators Cross a New Line

Vietnamese sportsbook and casino QH88 has used a deepfake video to fraudulently present Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes as its official brand ambassador. The Guardian reported that the operator built a website around the fictitious deal and produced a one-minute film purporting to show Fernandes signing an “ambassadorial contract” with QH88 representatives at Old Trafford.

The clip, which plays on a loop on QH88’s main site, was first investigated by Norwegian outlet Josimar, which commissioned a frame-by-frame analysis. According to Josimar’s account, as cited by the Guardian, the expert identified multiple tells of artificial intelligence (AI) generation – blurred details, minor continuity errors and generic faces – that would be difficult for a casual viewer to spot. The outlet described the video as the first football deepfake of its kind.

Manchester United is still the most popular football club in Vietnam, so Fernandes was a logical target for a scheme like this. QH88 also hosts unauthorized live streams of football matches from several countries, according to Josimar, suggesting an operation with more resources than the typical throwaway sportsbooks that routinely appear and vanish across Southeast Asia.

The Fernandes deepfake followed a parallel scheme targeting Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham. An operator called Nightwin bought Instagram advertising built around a fabricated BBC article claiming Bellingham had launched his own betting app, “Bellingham Bet,” billed as “Britain’s most honest betting app” and carrying a logo based on the stylized signature the player uses with sponsor Adidas. The fake listing boasted a 4.9/5 rating and a fanciful 1.9 million+ downloads before funneling users to Nightwin’s platform. The ads disappeared within days, leaving only screenshots.

Nightwin is licensed only in Curaçao, where it launched this year through Flybergom B.V. – a company incorporated in the jurisdiction in May 2024 that obtained its gaming license there in September 2025. Flybergom also runs the DK88, or Dashking88, brand targeting the illegal Malaysian and Singaporean markets. Its registered Willemstad address is an office building known for housing corporate-services firms that act as trustees for large numbers of opaque businesses – and, per the Guardian, that is where the ownership trail ends. Neither Nightwin nor QH88 appears in the Great Britain Gambling Commission’s register, yet Nightwin can be accessed and registered from within the UK without using a VPN.

Illegal operators have long plastered their sites with photographs of stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and the “global ambassadors” they openly recruit are typically retired players no longer bound by article 27 of the FIFA code of ethics, which bars those active in football from profiting from any association with betting operators. The use of active players’ likenesses has been a source of controversy recently, even when above board – French superstar Mbappé objected to his image promoting a bookmaker ahead of the World Cup.

Enforcement against the operators themselves is the harder problem. “Whenever we become aware of an unlicensed operator we take action,” a Great Britain Gambling Commission spokesperson told the Guardian, urging consumers to confirm a business holds a commission license before depositing money. But illegal platforms operate almost exclusively from offshore jurisdictions that shield their ultimate owners, layered behind shell companies that exist only as registry entries – making cease-and-desist letters and lawsuits largely futile. Under the Macolin Convention, which the UK has signed, illegal sports betting covers any betting whose operator is not permitted under the law where the customer is located. The United Kingdom’s currently estimated gambling black market is approaching the $20 billion figure.

Celebrity deepfakes have already been deployed in gambling promotions using the likenesses of figures well beyond football, and unless regulators can coordinate their so far limited efforts against offshore operators – many of which rely on cryptocurrency rails to reach customers worldwide – the tactic is positioned to spread.