Croatia’s Football Team Signed Deal With Gambling Sponsor Whose Rep Used Fake Name
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Croatia's football federation signed a gambling sponsorship deal with a company whose representative used a fake identity.
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Croatia's national football federation signed a two-year deal in May 2024 making gambling website Dragon Z6 the team's "exclusive betting partner" across Asia ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The man identified on screen as "Alexander Smith" at the signing ceremony was actually Branko Balon, a computer science senior lecturer at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb, confirmed through facial recognition analysis. Dragon Z6 appears to be a rebranded iteration of Hong Kong-linked gambling platform KashBet, which has sponsored multiple European and international football clubs under different names for over a decade. Federation chief Dennis Lukančić said HNS conducted "standard compliance and due diligence procedures" but declined to answer whether it knew Balon's real identity or to identify who actually signed the contract on Dragon Z6's behalf. England faces Croatia in Dallas on June 17 as the Three Lions' opening match of the World Cup qualifying tournament.
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