The virtual badminton section on the Russian-owned 1xBet pits a computer-generated Axelsen against avatars of real opponents Kodai Naraoka, Jonatan Christie and Loh Kean Yew, with the on-screen venue labelled “Royal Arena, Copenhagen,” according to TV 2. Odds shift live as each simulated rally plays out, and customers bet real cash on the generated results.
Axelsen, who stopped playing competitively on 15 April after a long back injury, as confirmed by Xinhua, told TV 2 he is consulting a lawyer about his options, while conceding that Russian-registered sites are hard to reach through the courts.
“I have no idea who is sitting there controlling those avatars, or how this could even be legal,” the 32-year-old said to the Danish broadcaster.
He called the product completely absurd, and said the worst part was not the misuse of his name but the position it put punters in, with people staking money on matches that were being generated, not played.
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BWF denies any licence or permission
The Badminton World Federation denied any role in the product. In a statement to TV 2, the governing body said it had issued no licence and no permission for the use of players’ names, likenesses or intellectual property in the simulated game, and said it had no involvement in or association with the betting product.
BWF and 1xBet were commercial partners for a run of major tournaments announced in September 2023, under a one-year deal with an option to extend. BWF told TV 2 the deal ended in 2023 and had not been renewed.
1xBet blocked across the UK, US and Russia
1xBet was founded in the Russian city of Bryansk in 2007 and now registers its corporate headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus. The operator is banned, unlicensed or blocked in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Spain and its original home country Russia, and in Ukraine its licence was revoked in 2023 on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s orders, according to Byline Times.
The UK Gambling Commission suspended its British licence in 2019 after a Sunday Times investigation into its betting markets, the same report notes. Despite the regulatory record, the company remains a global partner of FC Barcelona.
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Axelsen is one of the most decorated men’s singles players in the sport’s history, with two Olympic gold medals, two World Championship titles and 183 weeks at world No. 1, according to Xinhua.
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