Poland investigates Turkish gambling operator linked to FAF Global, MeritKing and MadridBet

Polish prosecutors are now looking at a network that, on paper, was doing telemarketing; in practice, investigators say it was helping move traffic to unlicensed gambling sites banned in Turkey and operating with offshore licensing structures that EU regulators do not recognize. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the useful part is simple: this is another reminder that “marketing services” can sit very close to prohibited gambling distribution.

1. Joint reporting by OCCRP, Frontstory.pl, TVN24, NGL.media and CIReN says the Polish company FAF Global Company, which will become Oliwka Covenant Technologies in May 2026, was tied to Turkish businessman Fedlan Kılıçaslan and promoted unlicensed gambling sites that are banned in Turkey.
2. The Warsaw prosecutor’s office confirmed an investigation into Kılıçaslan and related companies on money laundering allegations. In November 2025, the Istanbul prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Kılıçaslan on suspicion of facilitating illegal gambling and advertising it, and Interpol issued a Red Notice based on that warrant.
3. Turkish prosecutors linked Kılıçaslan to five digital platforms under the MeritKing brand. In March 2026, he was arrested in Barcelona in a separate sexual violence case; Spanish authorities seized his passport and barred him from leaving the country.
4. According to the investigation, FAF Global handled telemarketing for the Turkey-blocked brands MeritKing, MadridBet and KingRoyal. A former employee said that when Turkish authorities blocked one domain, a new mirror site was created immediately, with customers sent the new address by SMS, Telegram and WhatsApp.
5. Turkish registry analysis showed that more than 100 MadridBet and MeritKing domains were blocked between 2018 and 2023. The sequence moved from MadridBet10.com in 2018 to MadridBet569.com by 2023, while internal MadridBet correspondence said the number of mirror sites had grown to at least 940.

During a visit to FAF Global’s office, TVN24 journalists found a MeritKing site open on an employee’s computer, with a logo previously registered by a Ukrainian company linked to Kılıçaslan. Polish law bans advertising gambling without a Ministry of Finance licence, and FAF Global’s CEO confirmed the company provides telephone marketing services to gambling operators.

The journalists also found that MeritKing and KingRoyal use licences from the Comoros and Anjouan, neither of which is recognized by EU regulators. The sites say they are operated by Exelogix, a company registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but the ultimate owners were not identified. After the report was published, FAF Global was renamed Oliwka Covenant Technologies and said it had no relationship with MeritKing, MadridBet or KingRoyal; the new company belongs to Poland’s Euromatch Group. Kılıçaslan has been active in online gambling at least since 2016, when he registered BetExpress-branded sites.