The bizarre saga of Mike Tyson, the giant pigeon, and the online casino

The world of gambling advertising can be a strange place at the best of times, and this year it has been thrust into the spotlight by some typically bizarre, sometimes controversial, but ultimately eye catching stories.

Mike Tyson, one of the most recognisable names in heavyweight boxing history, is at the centre of the latest saga. The former undisputed heavyweight champion is being sued for $1.5m (£1.1m) by the company which promotes the Rabona online casino, Medier Ltd, which claims breach of a marketing contract.

The company is also including Tyson’s promotional company, Tyrannic, in the lawsuit, as reported by various outlets including talkSPORT and The Independent. Tyrannic and Medier had signed a deal for Tyson to feature in promotional material for the brand back in 2024.

However, Tyson ultimately withdrew from his arrangements with the firm after being asked to star in an advert alongside four other presenters, one of whom would be dressed in a giant pigeon costume. 

Tyson was then due to give the giant pigeon a boxing tutorial, apparently using a dummy with the face of Evander Holyfield, Tyson’s 1990s heavyweight rival whose ear he infamously bit into during their 1997 rematch.

The boxer’s lawyers argue that the scope of this planned advert fell well outside the remit of his contract. Rabona, meanwhile, is accusing Tyson of failing to meet the terms of his marketing contract, stating that he essentially lost interest in the deal after being offered a multi-million dollar exhibition fight with influencer boxer Jake Paul in late 2024.

Is Rabona v Tyson proving the old adage true?…

It’s fair to say that this legal case has more than a few eye catching elements:

• One of the most widely recognised heavyweight world champions, and a controversial one at that, and who is due to be the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary;
• A giant pigeon, likely a nod to Tyson’s lifelong enthusiasm for homing pigeons, and for more modern audiences (and perhaps those with a slightly strange taste in media) also a nod to the Adult Swim series Mike Tyson Mysteries, in which an anthropomorphic pigeon character was voiced by the late Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald
• And an online casino brand, one which most consumers are likely not familiar with. Various casino comparison sites, such as AskGamblers, list Rabona as having an Anjouan licence, while others state it has a Curucao licence – but Rabona cannot be found in the licence register of either Anjouan or Curaçao.

These various moving parts do beg one question – in the long-run, has the failed marketing campaign project paid off? After all, Rabona is now finding its name splashed across the pages of talkSPORT, the Independent, the Telegraph and the Sun – and that’s just the British press.

After all, isn’t all publicity good publicity? This was the message a few people took home in another gambling advertising-related story this year, when prediction markets platform Novig launched a campaign featuring American actor Sydney Sweeney.

The advert featured a nude Sweeney propping sports equipment against her body, with the tagline being that Novig offers trading on ‘Just Sports’ – not politics or war, markets that have courted a lot of controversy for the prediction markets sector.

On the topic of controversy, the ad sparked a huge backlash as Novig and Sweeney were accused of objectifying women and trivialising the achievements of female athletes. Many active and former female athletes were quick to condemn the ad.

But, as many pointed out at the time, perhaps this served Novig’s goal – after all, it got everyone talking about the brand, which is dwarfed in the prediction markets space by the effective duopoly of Polymarket and Kalshi.

Perhaps the same could be said for Rabona as its legal battle with Tyson plays out – though many regulators and regulated betting industries around the world likely won’t be too happy with such a prospect as they rally against offshore, unlicensed gambling platforms, and particularly the way these platforms market themselves on social media.