Zona de Azar USA – Illegal Betting Apps Posing As BetMGM Prior To Google Play Store Rollout

USA.- March 15, 2021 www.zonadeazar.com Americans who want to bet legally online are excited about gambling apps from major brands beginning to appear on Google Play.

To date, DraftKings remains the only legal US gambling app in the store. Others are still on their way, and in the meantime, US bettors have to be on the lookout for imposters. Several illegal betting apps from offshore companies are masquerading as these favorite brands.

Effective Mar. 1, Google announced that it will “allow real-money gambling apps, ads related to real-money gambling, and daily fantasy sports apps that meet certain requirements.”

There has been a lag between that effective date and gambling apps appearing in the Play Store, however. Offshore companies are taking advantage by attempting to fool American gamblers with fake apps.

BetMGM is the main target of imposter apps

As of Mar. 11, a search on Google Play for BetMGM yields the real MGM Resorts concierge app, but none of its gambling products. Instead, several imposters pop up. Within the first 10 results, there are several apps which indicated that they’re new and claim falsely to be from BetMGM.

The most convincing-looking of these are Live App Betmgm by Flashcom and LIVE SPORTS RESULTS & ODDS FOR BETMGM FANS by techtok. Though the names are a giveaway, both apps’ icons feature a lion’s head meant to resemble that of the real BetMGM logo. There’s also a third app with what appears to be a “verified” blue check mark on the upper left-hand corner of the thumbnail.

Further down the search results is a new app from Bovada, which uses an image of a capital “B” and an inset, circular cutout of the American flag. Bovada is the illegal, US-facing wing of the offshore operator Bodog, which recently had a Super Bowl ad rejected by CBS.

A screenshot of the Google Play Store, showing a search for BetMGM. The first result is legitimate, though not a gambling app, while several imitators appear in subsequent results.

Editó: @_fonta   www.zonadeazar.com