Dataharvest 2026 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Behind the polished facade of the multi-million euro football industry lies a darker reality. This presentation will take you inside two cross-border investigations into the opaque world of football sponsorships – tracking the unlicensed betting firms and crypto exchanges that now have a seat at the game’s top table.

The first exposed the influence and lucrative partnerships betting operators have with teams in more than 30 European leagues. The second uncovered the increasing foothold that crypto and investment companies have, revealing how unregulated sponsors infiltrated major sporting organisations.

We will explain how we obtained the underlying data and turned it into compelling stories connecting countries across the continent. The presentation will offer insights into the different tools and techniques we used – from trawling corporate accounts and financial registries, to exploiting Virtual Private Networks to assist with international research. We will discuss how these methods were used to build out investigative strands with international media partners and can be utilised for other cross-border projects.