Ciaran O'Brien

Splitting time between London and Glos. Entain plc and Director of Champ - promoting peace and prosperity for Britain and Ireland

[Nigel Huddleston MP @HuddlestonNigel]

Absolutely ridiculous that the Gambling Commission think this should be a priority!

What is the harm they anticipate being done with such office sweepstakes?

Maybe focus on trying to stop the growth of the genuinely dangerous and growing black market instead?

https://t.co/8t90wmlE16

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

22 years and we finally got there…

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

It’s been a long wait…but we got there…

[Richard Keys @richardajkeys]

What’s happened at Leicester is sad - and wrong. They’ve been relegated after a six-point deduction for financial irregularities whilst City are about to win another title with 135 charges unanswered 3 years later. How can this be?

[Anders Strom @SWI_ANDERS]

BLACK market bookmakers will spend £1 billion on advertising their illegal activity in the UK by 2028, exceeding the total of all regulated firms like Coral and William Hill, according to a new independent analysis from World Advertising Research Center (WARC).

[Chris Alfred @Chris_Alfred]

Good piece in the Guardian on Trustpilot hosting reviews of illegal casinos https://t.co/CCm1cK01Rk

[Jess Caine @jessalinecaine]

Seen a lot of disapproval against bookies on the TL lately.

Proudly worked in one for 6 years, an industry which pays about £4bn in tax to the Treasury annually while helping fund British horseracing .

Feel free to dislike gambling but pretending it contributes nothing is lazy

[JustBizarreFooty | B @JBFootyX]

To every Arsenal fan,

I don’t even know where to begin but I have to say I’m sorry.

What happened yesterday is on me. One moment, one decision and it changed everything. I’ve replayed it over and over in my head and it hurts knowing I let the team and every single one of you down.

I know what this club means. I know what it means to fight for every point, every position, every dream. And in a moment where we needed composure, I made the wrong choice. There are no excuses for that.

Seeing the disappointment, the anger, I understand it. Honestly I feel it too. Probably even more. Because when you wear this badge, you carry millions with you and yesterday I didn’t carry it the way I should have.

All I can promise is this I won’t hide. I won’t shy away from it. I will take it, learn from it and use it. Because moments like this either break you or build you and I refuse to let it break me.

I will come back stronger. For the team. For this club. For you.

I’m truly sorry.

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

What an example to us all…

[Football Tweet ⚽ @Footballtweet]

📅 On this day, 8 years ago, we lost the late great Ray Wilkins.

❤️ This story from a former solider about how Wilkins helped him escape a life on the streets is still as powerful today as it was back then.

[Jordan Lea @lynchjordan12]

There is a very clear indicator as to the growth of the Illegal Gambling market in the UK.

For those in the know, there are 3 major providers of Black Market gambling globally. Until now, they have kept out of the UK market by choice. We are now finding them routinely targetting the UK, as our next report will highlight.

https://t.co/07pECcAfbz

[Daniel Waugh @DanielWaugh6]

The SMF’s moralising is interesting in the light of recent revelations about links between Meta, Tik Tok and the black market. The SMF has, of course, received substantial funding from both tech giants…

[Racing Post @RacingPost]

"High-profile influencers directed followers to black market sites offering no player protection, age or identity verification, and also pushed customers towards using cryptocurrencies to make deposits for additional layers of anonymity

In the build-up to last month’s Cheltenham Festival, Wood signed up to multiple illegal sites via social media including under the names of Harry Skelton, Jack Kennedy and Willie Mullins, whose address he listed as ‘Cheltenham racecourse’, and bet in races against the runners representing the real-life professionals"

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

@chrisgambler247 We were world leaders in not having to enforce…that is a very different thing

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

It is pure fantasy land - I tried to explain it to him at the Labour fringe and he had no interest at all in the facts. We are not world leaders at all. We are barely doing anything -advertising, payments, product the illegal market has a pretty free rein and is set to grow rapidly. I hope they they review their position on tax as the evidence mounts…

[Chris Fawcett @chrisgambler247]

Articles like this in today's Guardian on illegal gambling make Theo Bertam's comments at the Treasury Select Committee seem strange.
https://t.co/HkB2Skx5h9

[Ebere Eze @md56fanpage11]

A night I will never forget in my life

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

@thebedfordfox @BHAHorseracing Hope training for the marathon going well!

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

@_onlyscott Niall Quinn. Brian Kidd.

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

Essential we see fast progress - thousands of illegal sites are advertising freely, targeting under age and self excluded gamblers as well as mainstream consumers. They actively do the wrong thing while doing the right thing is part of our core values. This problem is growing and will only get worse after April’s tax increases.

[Department for Culture, Media and Sport @DCMS]

Baroness @fionatwycross launched the new Illegal Gambling Taskforce and set out its mission to tackle this important issue.

“By uniting key players across the industry - from tech companies and advertisers, to social media and payment platforms - and sharing expertise, we can make a real impact.

“Our Taskforce will work together over the next year to ensure that people who wish to gamble can do so safely, with the right protections in place.” Baroness Twycross

[GDon @gdonlfc]

This was the level of racism Barnes was facing midweek as Liverpool played Everton twice in a week.
It shocked loads of people on TV, the unparalleled amount of racist abuse which they’ve never seen before.

[Ciaran O'Brien @ciarano2]

RT @BoyleSports: 🏇 Hewick has been entered into the Stayers' Hurdle at this year's Cheltenham Festival, setting up a potential face-off aga…