Two days ago, Simon Westbury made what may prove to be the most reputation-destroying decision of his career. In a LinkedIn announcement that sent shockwaves through the regulated sports betting sector, 1xBet welcomed the veteran executive as their new Strategic Advisor—a role that effectively trades three decades of hard-earned credibility for association with what investigators describe as a Russian criminal enterprise.
The announcement represents more than just another high-profile hire; it exposes the online gambling market’s willingness to sacrifice ethical standards for financial gain, and demonstrates how grey market operators systematically recruit legitimate executives to whitewash their criminal reputations.
The Fall of a Regulated Market Veteran
Simon Westbury built his reputation as a trusted leader in the B2B sports betting sector, navigating the complex world of regulated gambling with apparent integrity. His career trajectory reads like a playbook for success in legitimate gambling operations:
- Chief Business Officer at GRID, the esports data company serving regulated operators
- Head of Sales at Digitain, a B2B platform provider focused on compliance-first solutions
- CEO of B2B Sports at EveryMatrix, overseeing operations for licensed gambling operators across Europe
These companies operate within the regulated ecosystem, partnering exclusively with licensed operators and maintaining strict compliance standards. Westbury’s expertise was built on fostering trust, navigating regulatory frameworks, and selling sophisticated data solutions to legitimate businesses.
This background makes his association with 1xBet not just jarring, but professionally inexplicable to iGaming sector observers who knew him as a champion of regulated gambling.
The Reputational Trade-off: Decades for Dollars
Sports betting professionals are describing Westbury’s move as the ultimate example of “selling out”—trading a lifetime of credibility building for what can only be assumed to be an extraordinarily lucrative compensation package. Grey market operators like 1xBet, unburdened by regulatory compliance costs and operating in jurisdictions with minimal taxation, can offer compensation packages that dwarf anything available in regulated markets.
The math is brutal but simple: Westbury has calculated that whatever 1xBet is paying him outweighs the complete destruction of his reputation in regulated markets. For someone who spent decades building relationships based on trust and ethical conduct, it represents a stunning fall from grace.
“When you see someone like Simon take this kind of role, you know the money must be absolutely astronomical,” commented one sports betting professional who requested anonymity. “There’s no other rational explanation for destroying everything you’ve built.”
1xBet: A Catalog of Criminal Conduct
To understand the magnitude of Westbury’s reputational gamble, one must examine the extensive criminal record of his new employer. 1xBet isn’t simply a controversial operator—it’s a company that has been systematically expelled from regulated markets worldwide for conduct that borders on criminal enterprise.
UK License Revocation and Banned Operations
In 2019, the UK Gambling Commission launched an investigation that effectively ended 1xBet’s operations in Westbury’s home country. The investigation, triggered by explosive reporting from The Sunday Times, revealed that 1xBet was:
- Operating a “Pornhub casino” featuring topless croupiers
- Accepting bets on children’s sports events
- Facilitating betting on cockfighting and other animal cruelty
- Advertising on illegal streaming sites showing pirated Premier League matches
Rather than face the investigation’s conclusions, 1xBet suspended UK operations—effectively making them a banned entity in the jurisdiction where Westbury built his career. His advisory role now puts him in the position of helping a company that cannot legally operate in his own country.
Dutch Court Victory Exposes Systematic Player Theft
The most damaging legal judgment came in 2023 when a Dutch court ordered 1xBet’s parent company, 1xCorp N.V., to repay 1.6 million Netherlands Antillean guilders (approximately €830,000) in player winnings that had been confiscated without justification. The company had accused the player of “fraud” and “software use” without providing evidence—a pattern that player forums suggest is standard practice for avoiding large payouts.
Following the court ruling, 1xCorp N.V. was declared bankrupt in Curaçao, a move widely interpreted as a deliberate strategy to avoid paying this and other court-ordered debts. The bankruptcy represents a textbook case of corporate fraud designed to evade legal obligations to customers.
The Russian Crime Connection
Perhaps most damaging to Westbury’s reputation is 1xBet’s well-documented connection to Russian organized crime. As detailed in our previous investigation, the company was founded by three Russian nationals, including a former cybercrime police chief, who are now international fugitives facing criminal charges in Russia.
The founders—Roman Semiokhin, Sergey Karshkov, and Dmitry Kazorin—built 1xBet into a global empire worth over $886 million while maintaining alleged ties to Russian state security apparatus. Karshkov died under mysterious circumstances in Switzerland in 2023, leaving behind questions about the company’s ongoing criminal connections.
The Bellingcat Cricket Streaming Scam
Investigative journalism organization Bellingcat exposed 1xBet’s role in a sophisticated cricket streaming scam, where the company hosted thousands of fake amateur sports streams to facilitate betting on fabricated events. The investigation revealed a systematic approach to creating artificial betting markets, allowing the company to control outcomes while collecting customer funds.
This type of sophisticated fraud demonstrates that 1xBet’s problems extend far beyond regulatory compliance—they represent fundamental criminal conduct designed to defraud customers.
iGaming Sector Reaction: “Whitewashing” a Criminal Reputation
The online betting market’s reaction to Westbury’s appointment has been swift and uniformly negative. Multiple sources describe his role as classic “reputation laundering”—lending his legitimate credentials to help 1xBet gain credibility without requiring actual operational changes.
“This is textbook whitewashing,” explained one regulatory consultant who works with European gambling authorities. “They’re not hiring Simon to clean up their act—they’re hiring him to make their dirty money look legitimate.”
The pattern is familiar to investigators who study organized crime: recruit respected figures from legitimate businesses to serve as fronts for criminal operations, providing a veneer of respectability while continuing illicit activities.
Westbury’s LinkedIn announcement itself demonstrates this strategy—positioning his appointment as a normal business development rather than acknowledging the extensive criminal allegations against his new employer.
The Broader Gambling Sector Cancer
Westbury’s decision reflects a broader moral bankruptcy within the iGaming sector, where the pursuit of profit has completely overwhelmed ethical considerations. The regulated gambling sector, which should serve as a beacon of responsible conduct, instead watches silently as its most respected figures sell their credibility to criminal enterprises.
This systematic corruption undermines the entire regulatory framework that legitimate operators claim to support. When betting technology veterans can seamlessly transition from regulated B2B operations to advising international fugitives, it suggests that the ethical divide between legitimate and criminal gambling may be far narrower than regulators assume.
The silence from Westbury’s former colleagues and employers speaks volumes about a gambling sector unwilling to police its own members’ ethical conduct.
Financial Motivation: The Only Rational Explanation
Given the certain reputational destruction and potential legal exposure, sports betting analysts universally conclude that Westbury’s motivation must be purely financial. Grey market operators operating outside regulatory oversight can generate massive profits through predatory practices, allowing them to offer compensation packages that regulated operators simply cannot match.
Conservative estimates suggest that senior advisory roles at companies like 1xBet can command annual compensation in the millions, particularly when factoring in performance bonuses tied to market expansion and revenue growth in unregulated territories.
For Westbury, the calculation appears straightforward: accept financial rewards that dwarf anything available in regulated markets, even if it means never being able to return to legitimate gambling operations.
The Whitewashing Strategy Exposed
Westbury’s appointment follows a predictable pattern used by criminal organizations to legitimize their operations:
- Recruit Legitimate Credentials: Hire respected figures from regulated industries
- Leverage Professional Networks: Use their contacts to expand into new markets
- Manufacture Credibility: Point to advisory appointments as evidence of legitimacy
- Maintain Criminal Operations: Continue illicit practices while hiding behind legitimate facades
This strategy allows companies like 1xBet to continue operating as criminal enterprises while gaining access to regulated market relationships and potential expansion opportunities.
The appointment of someone with Westbury’s background serves as a powerful signal to other betting technology professionals that 1xBet is willing to pay premium rates for legitimate credibility—creating a marketplace for selling professional reputations to criminal organizations.
Regulatory Response: Where Are the Watchdogs?
The most troubling aspect of Westbury’s appointment may be the complete lack of regulatory response. While gambling authorities across Europe claim to prioritize integrity and responsible gambling, none have commented on one of their regulated sector’s most prominent figures advising a company banned from multiple jurisdictions.
This regulatory silence suggests either incompetence or willful blindness to the systematic corruption of legitimate gambling operations by criminal enterprises. If regulators cannot or will not address such blatant reputation laundering, it raises fundamental questions about their effectiveness in protecting consumers and maintaining market integrity.
Conclusion: A Cautionary Tale of Gambling Sector Corruption
Simon Westbury’s decision to advise 1xBet represents more than a personal career choice—it’s a damning indictment of an online gambling market that has lost its moral compass. When respected executives can seamlessly transition from building regulated businesses to advising criminal enterprises, it exposes the fundamental corruption that undermines the entire gambling ecosystem.
The appointment serves as a stark reminder that in the modern sports betting sector, everything has a price—including the reputations that took decades to build. Westbury’s calculation may prove financially rewarding in the short term, but it has permanently aligned him with an organization that investigators describe as a criminal enterprise.
For the regulated iGaming sector, Westbury’s fall should serve as a wake-up call about the ethical standards it claims to uphold. When veteran executives can destroy their credibility for grey market money without professional consequences, it suggests that the betting sector’s commitment to integrity may be nothing more than marketing rhetoric.
The ultimate tragedy is not just Westbury’s personal reputation destruction, but what it represents: a gambling sector so morally bankrupt that trading credibility for crime money has become a rational career decision.
As 1xBet continues its global expansion with the help of legitimate betting technology professionals like Westbury, regulators and gambling sector leaders must confront an uncomfortable truth: they have created an environment where criminal enterprises can systematically purchase legitimacy from the very people supposed to uphold ethical standards.
The question now is whether the sports betting sector will address this systematic corruption, or continue enabling the transformation of legitimate gambling credentials into criminal enterprise facades.
For more on 1xBet’s criminal operations, see our comprehensive investigations: The 1xBet Investigation: How International Fugitives Built a Global Betting Empire and The 1xBet Labyrinth: A Case Study in Global Corporate Malfeasance.