Proper up till the second it was unveiled as an official betting partner for the FIFA World Cup 2026, ADI Predict Road had nearly no public presence.
It had a touchdown web page, with a countdown to a launch date, and a playing licence from Gibraltar, issued simply days earlier.
A few weeks later, it went on to announce a separate partnership with DAZN, a worldwide sports activities streaming big that owns Foxtel and Kayo Sports activities.
DAZN – generally referred to as the “Netflix of Sport” – stated it deliberate to combine ADI Predict Road’s platform into its protection of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
This, the corporate stated in a press launch, was solely a primary step in direction of rolling the playing product out extra broadly throughout its international streaming platform.
In Australia, the World Cup shall be solely broadcast by SBS; nevertheless, DAZN has the native rights to main Australian and worldwide sports activities.
An insider-trading lawsuit in India
When ADI Predict Road was unveiled as FIFA’s betting partner, Ajay Bhatia was up on stage, representing the corporate.
He posed for images alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the 2 of them holding up a jersey with the ADI Predict Road brand on the again.
ADI Predict Road’s Ajay Bhatia (proper) on stage alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino. (X: ADI Predict Road)
Six months earlier, Bhatia had been busy coping with a far much less glamorous matter.
He had been accused of insider buying and selling in India, allegedly utilizing data he gained whereas working at a subsidiary of the identical firm that controls ADI Predict Road.
On the time of the buying and selling in query, Bhatia was the CEO and managing director of QuantLase Lab, an organization backed by the United Arab Emirates royal household.
He was accused of shopping for shares in Adani Group — an Indian power big — forward of a public announcement that QuantLase Lab’s father or mother firm can be investing in Adani Group.
The case was settled for about $150,000, with no request for forgiveness, in September 2025.
The day after Bhatia’s historical past was revealed by Norwegian soccer information outlet Josimar, ADI Predict Road named a new CEO — Dimitrios Psarrakis.
The identical outlet identified Psarrakis’ prior skilled relationship with Eva Kaili, a former vp of the European Parliament, who’s at the centre of an unrelated corruption scandal involving the earlier FIFA World Cup. Kaili has not been convicted of any crime.
ADI Predict Road didn’t reply to the ABC’s questions.
“Dimitrios [Psarrakis] has by no means been charged with any wrongdoing,” the corporate instructed Josimar in a press release.
“At the moment, he stays a globally recognised blockchain professional and a speaker at top-tier universities, worldwide organisations, in addition to skilled summits on FinTech, RegTech, Blockchain and the Digital Disruption of Banking and Monetary Companies across the globe.”
No working product
With solely 53 days till the World Cup kicks off, the ADI Predict Road web site would not but settle for actual cash bets.
It launched a “free to play follow setting” a number of days after the FIFA announcement, which does not seem to have seen any use. All six out there markets on the positioning present zero betting exercise.
The web site additionally fails to load in some browsers, with Firefox warning guests of “a probably critical safety subject”.
When it launches its real-money product, will probably be based mostly on an experimental blockchain.
The ADI Basis, an Abu Dhabi-based non-profit, launched its namesake blockchain — ADI Chain — in December 2025.
The muse then went on an announcement spree.
There was a new cryptocurrency backed by the UAE’s central financial institution, and strategic partnerships with Mastercard, Crypto.com, and banking platform Fasset.
ADI’s Ajay Bhatia (proper) signing the partnership with banking platform Fasset. (ADI Basis)
Throughout this era, the inspiration made no public bulletins about its plans to launch a betting service on the ADI blockchain.
However it was quietly readying itself for the launch. In late January, ADI Predict Road’s web site area was registered.
Just a few months on, simply days forward of the FIFA deal going public, the corporate acquired its licence from Gibraltar’s playing regulator.
It was issued in “file time”, stated the federal government minister who claimed to have personally expedited the process.
The Gibraltar licence doesn’t cowl using its merchandise exterior Europe.
Prediction markets
ADI Predict Road refers to itself as a “prediction market” reasonably than an on-line betting website.
The distinction between the 2 is essentially technical.
Prediction markets are blockchain-based playing platforms that enable customers to guess on the result of virtually something, together with sports activities, wars, geopolitics and even the timing of Jesus’ return.
The 2 main prediction market suppliers, Kalshi and Polymarket, have become controversial in recent months for taking bets on the Iran War, with allegations that a few of their customers could also be partaking in insider buying and selling based mostly on categorized army intelligence.
Australia’s media regulator, the ACMA, warned Polymarket final yr that it was providing a betting service with out an Australian licence, and instructed web suppliers to dam its web site.
The ACMA has instructed the ABC it’s “in search of extra data from DAZN about implications, if any, for Australian prospects” arising from its new partnership with ADI Predict Road”.
