You could guess Joseph Muscat is heading Malta’s football Premier League from the sponsors he’s bringing in. His first sponsorship deal for the Premier was with Azerbaijani-linked 360 Sports. It was meant to be a three-year deal. Yet, just one year into the much-hyped sponsorship, the deal was quietly terminated.
360 Sports was unveiled as Muscat’s first title sponsor before it was even registered as a company in Malta. The Azerbaijani linked company promised to develop a ‘Super app’ for local fans – but, like many of Muscat’s empty promises, it never materialised. Now 360 Sports has packed up and gone – with no explanation from the Premier League .
After that flop, Muscat swiftly moved onto the next sponsorship deal – and it looks equally suspicious. The Premier League’s title sponsor is YoHealth, an app that earns users cryptocurrency and vouchers for doing simple exercise like walking.
The problem is YoHealth’s users are based in Armenia. It advertises products in Armenian currency or American dollars. It’s linked to an Armenian businessman, Vigen Badalyan, who bought Maltese citizenship and whose companies have had brushes with the law.
As early as 2020, Badalyan’s Vivaro Ltd was fined €733,000 by the FIAU, which concluded that the company had violated 10 different provisions of financial crime law. That fine was overturned by the court and the case was halted on a technicality.
Badalyan and his brother had moved their shares in Vivaro Ltd to Soft Construct Ltd, a company registered in the Isle of Man. They also registered FC Capital Ltd in Malta.
The audit firm engaged by Badalyan was Nexia BT, the company owned by Labour’s favourite auditor, Brian Tonna, and which set up Keith Schembri’s and Konrad Mizzi’s secretive offshore financial structures.
On January 4, 2023, the Malta Gaming Authority reportedly approved Bet Construct, another of Badalyan’s companies, to allow players to deposit money using cryptocurrencies and virtual financial assets to place their bets. Bet Construct’s partners included vbnet.net, which operated under Vivaro Ltd, the same Badalyan company fined €733,000 by the FIAU.
Badalyan’s Bet Construct bragged that it was committed “to providing our customers with the fairest offering possible”. It claimed that it was “contributing to… global efforts to combat corruption and match-fixing”.
Just two weeks later, on January 17, 2023, the UK Gambling Commission determined that Vivaro Ltd was “not complying with anti-money laundering and responsible gaming procedures”.
The UK Gambling Commission found that Vbet, whose parent company is Vivaro Ltd, had exhibited “significant weaknesses” with regard to anti-money laundering and safe gambling practices”. Vbet had not provided sufficient guidance to its employees about how to verify sources of funding.
This is the man who sold us the American University of Malta and its fictitious 4,000 students and 800 employees. He’s the genius behind Vitals
Customers were allowed to deposit significant amounts of money before Vbet had even conducted any “know your customer” checks. It allowed users to deposit significant amounts of money and lose it all almost immediately. It had poor record-keeping practices and had no way to track customers’ use of gambling mechanisms. Vbet agreed to pay £337,631 for its violations.
The UK Gambling Commission balked at Vbet’s acceptance of cryptocurrency since it viewed crypto as a high-risk product and discouraged its use. But Malta’s Gaming Authority reportedly allowed Badalyan’s Bet Construct to accept cryptocurrency as deposits by its clients.
By November 2024, Vigen Badalyan was named Leader of the Year at the SIGMA Europe B2B Awards held in Malta.
“This honour recognises his outstanding leadership and input in bringing the iGaming and crypto industries together,” his company said.
An investigation by Amphora Media and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that Badalyan was behind VBETTR and other illegal gambling sites in Turkey. VBETTR was the Turkish twin of Badalyan’s vBet brand, which had partnered with the Maltese Premier League and the Malta national football team.
Badalyan’s companies allegedly provided betting infrastructure to an illicit network owned by gambling tycoon Halil Falyali, a Turkish Cypriot businessman.
On February 8, 2022, a group of armed men attacked his car. His driver was killed instantly and Falyali suffered 16 gunshot wounds and died in a Nicosia hospital.
Falyali had been the kingpin of gambling in Turkey. The United States had indicted Falyali and his brother on drug money laundering in 2015.
Turkish prosecutors allege that Falyali used Malta as his “base” for a massive illegal online betting operation .
Meanwhile, Badalyan, who is now a Maltese citizen, is also busy providing his professional support against payment for clients to get a UAE visa.
His personal page presents Badalyan as “a self-taught entrepreneur”. He promises to “make your transition to Dubai as seamless as possible”.
So, after Muscat’s first Premier League sponsor, the Azerbaijani Sport 360, quietly pulled out, Muscat got Badalyan on board with his YoHealth app.
This app is advertising all sorts of things, including fake flowers, cars, electric razors and even “dog”, on sale for 80,000 Armenian drams.
But the Malta Premier League has reassured fans that they “will soon be able to interact with YoHealth”.
It said that it will connect fans directly to the Premier League through products including “YoPhone, YoBlog and YoDoor”.
A Malta Premier League spokesperson declared that “this strategic partnership will bring a range of fan-focused activations (?) and surprises”. I can’t wait!
When Times of Malta pointed out Badalyan’s massive FIAU fine, Muscat quickly sprang to his defence. So what, Muscat remarked, “just as HSBC, Bank of Valletta, Lombard, Fimbank and others have (been fined)… they had an issue and they solved it”.
Muscat also told us that Schembri and Mizzi were only thinking of their families’ assets when they set up those secret Panama companies – they did nothing wrong.
This is the man who sold us the American University of Malta and its fictitious 4,000 students and 800 employees. He’s the genius behind Vitals.
The Invictus who had Yorgen Fenech at his Girgenti palace party now brings you his friend Badalyan and his YoHealth. Enjoy!