The parent company of betting firm Mr Q — Watford’s front-of-shirt sponsor — must pay £690,947 after being found by the UK Gambling Commission to have failed to protect individuals, including children, from being exploited by gambling and not meeting standards relating to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.

Mr Q – based in Hertfordshire – became Watford’s main sponsor in June in a three-year deal worth in the region of £1million per season.

“The multi-year agreement represents a record-breaking deal for an EFL club,” said Watford at the time, while Mr Q highlighted the company does not “just adhere to regulations but that we go above and beyond the call of duty.”

An investigation by the UK’s gambling regulator found that Lindar Media Limited, which controls Mr Q, failed to comply with seven different areas — including combating problem gambling — between July 2021 and September 2022, which led to a review of the company’s practices.

One of the breaches centred on a series of adverts placed on a third party site for Mr Q gambling games which were found to be “likely to be of particular appeal to children”. The images related to King Kong cash pots, Piggy Bank Bills and The Doghouse Megaways being promoted alongside pictures of Spiderman.

Betting companies are obliged to minimise the risk to those who are experiencing harms associated with gambling, which Mr Q was found not have done satisfactorily.

“The review of customer accounts identified that some customers were able to deposit and lose up to and in excess of £10,000 with no controls in place to intervene until the money had been lost,” said the report. “Disproportionate customer spend in relation to a customer’s personal circumstances was not considered for some customers until they had deposited and lost significant amounts of money.”

The failures related to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing including insufficient measures for customer detail checks, while there was also a failure to report key staff changes who held regulatory responsibilities. Lindar Media also failed to make a mandated financial contribution to an organisation to support research, prevention and treatment for those harmed by gambling for 2021.

The Commission highlighted the “serious nature” of the breaches and that “the nature of the breaches may mean other customers were affected that the Commission has not reviewed”. It also said Lindar Media was “fully co-operative” and has “taken immediate steps to rectify the breaches identified and in some cases implemented changes prior to the compliance assessment.”

Lindar Media said in a statement: “None of the failings showcased evidence of criminal spending within Lindar Media or that there was any financial upside for the business as a result.

“The failings listed by the Gambling Commission took place during a period of exponential growth with the investigations being conducted prior to the organisations implementation of its core senior leadership team.

“Lindar Media shares the Commission’s commitment to improve compliance standards across the industry and continues to work proactively with the Gambling Commission to ensure these oversights are not repeated.”

Premier League clubs have agreed to ban gambling firms from being front-of-shirt sponsors from the start of the 2026-27 season but The Big Step campaign wants an end to gambling advertising and sponsorship in football all together.

“Watford must immediately review its partnership with this company and commit to permanently moving away from all gambling sponsorship,” said a spokesperson from The Big Step. “This is yet another example of unsafe gambling companies being promoted by so-called ‘family’ football clubs. Shirts that young fans proudly wear should not be advertising companies fined for murky practices such as anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.”

Watford and Mr Q have already allowed the club’s shirts to be sold without the gambling sponsor this season, an option which has been taken up by some fans.

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(Photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)