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ED freezes ₹110 crore, targets surrogate betting entities Parimatch News and Sports
The investigation is ongoing, with the ED expected to probe the role of domestic partners, advertising agencies, payment intermediaries, and celebrities who endorsed the brand through its surrogate platforms.
The investigation revealed that Parimatch allegedly routed user deposits through a nationwide network of mule bank accounts.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday announced that it has frozen ₹110 crore lying in mule bank accounts and seized over 1,200 credit cards as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation into Parimatch, a Cyprus-based “illegal” online betting platform.
According to the agency, Parimatch cemented its presence in India through an “aggressive” marketing and branding strategy that heavily relied on sports sponsorships, celebrity endorsements, and large-scale promotional activities. A key component of this campaign, investigators allege, was the creation of two Indian-registered surrogate entities — Parimatch Sports and Parimatch News — which were used to run advertisements and sponsorship deals that obscured the true nature of Parimatch’s betting business. Payments to these entities reportedly came in the form of foreign inward remittances.
The ED said searches were carried out at 17 locations, including Mumbai, Noida, Jaipur, Surat, Madurai, Kanpur, and Hyderabad. The case, registered on August 12 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), followed a First Information Report filed by Mumbai Police’s cyber crime unit against Parimatch’s website.
Complex Fund-Routing Network
The investigation revealed that Parimatch allegedly routed user deposits through a nationwide network of mule bank accounts. In one example from Tamil Nadu, funds deposited into mule accounts were withdrawn in cash and handed over to hawala operators, who recharged virtual wallets of a UK-based company. These wallets were later used to purchase cryptocurrency via mule crypto accounts controlled by Parimatch agents.
In western India, the platform is said to have worked with domestic money transfer (DMT) agents. Funds in mule accounts managed by these agents were allegedly sent to Parimatch operatives through payments made via mule credit cards.
Tech Providers as Financial Gateways
The ED probe also found that certain payment companies — whose applications for payment aggregator licences had been rejected by the Reserve Bank of India — continued to work with Parimatch under the guise of “technology service providers” (TSPs). These firms allegedly offered application programming interfaces (APIs) that allowed Parimatch agents to onboard mule accounts opened in the names of e-commerce companies and payment solution providers.
These accounts collected user deposits through UPI transfers, which were then “layered” to disguise their origin. The layering process allegedly involved routing money as e-commerce refunds, chargebacks, or vendor payments — a method designed to conceal the actual purpose and flow of funds.
₹3,000 Crore Annual Turnover
The ED estimates that Parimatch generated over ₹3,000 crore in a single year, luring investors with promises of high returns while using surrogate advertising through Parimatch Sports and Parimatch News to maintain visibility and legitimacy.
The agency alleges that the use of these surrogate companies allowed Parimatch to bypass Indian laws prohibiting betting advertisements, using sports-related branding and news-style content as a cover for promoting its betting operations.
The investigation is ongoing, with the ED expected to probe the role of domestic partners, advertising agencies, payment intermediaries, and celebrities who endorsed the brand through its surrogate platforms.
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