MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Mumbai zonal unit on Tuesday conducted searches at nine fintech firms in Delhi, Gurugram, and Haryana as part of its money-laundering investigation into mobile applications, including the Fairplay app, for the illegal streaming of cricket, including a few Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in 2023 and online betting on 2024 Lok Sabha election results. The fintech firms, acting as financial service providers for certain mobile applications, came under the scanner of ED due to their alleged involvement in monetary transactions related to the disbursement of betting proceeds to the players, agency sources said. The Fairplay app is allegedly linked as a subsidiary app to the Mahadev Online Book (MOB) platform, whose illegal online betting activities have been probed in a separate investigation by the ED since 2022.
ED’s probe against Fairplay Sports LLC and others is based on an FIR registered by the Mumbai police’s Nodal Cyber Police on the complaint of Viacom18 Media Pvt Limited under sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act for allegedly causing loss of revenue of over ₹ 100 crore, which is the proceeds of crime in ED’s case. The complainant had alleged that the matches were illegally streamed on Fairplay, and many celebrities had endorsed and promoted the betting application. The complainant had alleged that the accused online apps had shown Viacom 18’s content without acquiring legal rights for .