Mike Tyson sued by Rabona operator over giant pigeon show

Medier Ltd, the Cyprus-registered company behind the Rabona online casino brand, is suing Mike Tyson in London's High Court over a January 2024 sponsorship deal worth about £1.5m ($2m). Medier says Tyson and his promotion company, Tyrannic LLC, broke the contract. They deny it and say Medier went beyond the deal first by requiring Tyson to take part in an online show with a presenter dressed as a giant pigeon. The case is before Mr Justice Richards.

What the contract covered

The court heard that under the contract, Tyson had agreed to promote Rabona's "gaming services" at livestream events and to attend a PR event at the iGB Live conference in Amsterdam on 16–19 July 2024. The fee was payable to Tyrannic in instalments, and Tyson was paid nearly $190,000 before the two sides parted company. Tyrannic is run by Tyson's wife, Lakiha Tyson.

Medier's case

Medier's barrister, Ali Reza Sinai, told the court that Tyson and Tyrannic failed to perform the agreed livestreams and ended the contract without proper notice. He called Tyson's Netflix deal to fight Jake Paul "the elephant in the room" and argued that the boxer "simply lost interest" in the Rabona deal once the more lucrative exhibition fight was agreed.

In written submissions, Sinai argued that the right "inference" was that Tyson's side feared the Amsterdam appearance would conflict with his Netflix agreement, which, he said, curtailed non-fight sponsorship in the build-up to the bout.

Tyson's case

Tyson's barrister, Amanda Hadkiss, said the contract limited him to being filmed playing "casino games" or other "approved" games on the Rabona website. Instead, she said, Medier wanted him in an entertainment show called "Talking Pigeons". The plan involved scripted lines with four presenters, one of them dressed as a giant pigeon, childhood stories, and boxing lessons on a mannequin bearing the face of Evander Holyfield, before Tyson played casino games on the site. Hadkiss said this went "far beyond the scope" of what the contract required.

Lakiha Tyson gave evidence on Wednesday, 14 October. "We wanted to go viral, but in a way that makes him and his brand proud, not a way that makes him look ridiculous," she told the court. "Mike didn't sign up for this goofy show." When Sinai put it to her that the Paul fight was the real reason, she said the two were "totally separate things".

A look behind a celebrity casino deal

The case has aired, in open court, how a celebrity casino deal is put together: a fee paid in stages, livestream appearances, a trade-show PR slot, and a dispute over how far "playing in casino games" stretches.

In a comment piece on 16 October, SBC News wrote that some casino comparison sites list Rabona as having an Anjouan licence and others a Curaçao licence, but that "Rabona cannot be found in the licence register of either Anjouan or Curaçao".

A famous face in an advert tells you nothing about who licenses a casino or whether it may legally take players where you live. That information sits in the regulator's own register, not in the marketing.

For more on gambling marketing and offshore brands, see Greece's criminal complaints against 18 Instagram influencers, Entain's call for a ban on unlicensed UK sports sponsorship and Gamban's warning about the similarly named Gambana casino.

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