Former Prime Minister and Malta Premier League chairman Joseph Muscat went to Facebook on Sunday afternoon following the publication of a news article about Maltese football’s highest tier’s latest main sponsor: YoHealth.
Muscat said the article was filled with misleading “half-truths” though recognised that everything reported is factual.
On Sunday morning, Times of Malta reported that the Malta Premier League’s new title sponsor is owned by a businessman named Vigen Badalyan whose former company (Vivaro, later re-named to SGCO) was accused of breaching anti-money laundering laws. Badalyan is a Maltese citizen; he was granted Maltese citizenship through the now closed acquisition-by-investment scheme.
YoHealth has become the main sponsor for Maltese football’s top tier league following an apparent breakdown in its relationship with last year’s sponsor, Azerbaijani-linked company 360 Sports.
Vivaro was fined €733,000 by the FIAU back in 2020 after it was found to have breached ten provisions of local financial crime laws. This fine was later overturned by a judge who ruled that the high fine was large enough to amount to a criminal penalty. The case was halted on a legal point.
The new Premier League sponsor, YoHealth, is an Armenian mobile application where users grant permission for the app to count their steps and for their steps to be converted into a redeemable cryptocurrency. Users may also redeem their steps for vouchers.
The report continues that YoHealth and its consumer base is heavily based in Armenia. Prizes available on the app are offered in Armenian dram and occasionally in US dollars. Through this deal, the app should soon open its market to the Maltese islands.
YoHealth’s sponsorship deal is valued at a quarter-million euros (€250,000). Last year’s sponsorship deal with 360 Sports – which was meant to last three years before coming to an abrupt end now – was worth €150,000.
The cryptocurrency one can earn through the YoHealth app is backed by a company (named Soft Construct) owned by Badalyan and his brother.
It also said that Vbet – an already present sponsor of the Malta Premier League – is also owned by Soft Construct. Vbet has naming rights over the Premier League’s weekly selected Goal of the Week. Vbet is operated by SGCO Ltd (formerly known as “Vivaro”); the operator is licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).
In his reply, Muscat posed several points to his followers, defending the sponsorship deal throughout.
Muscat dismissed several concerns posed by the news article in his Facebook post. On Badalyan’s acquired Maltese citizenship, Muscat noted with satisfaction that he had passed the rigorous checks in place for him to even be granted this previously lucrative citizenship status.
“For a person to become a Maltese citizen [through this means] one must go through extensive checks. It gives me peace of mind that the company’s owner has gone through these checks,” Muscat said.
Regarding Badalyan’s former company and its FIAU fines, Robert Abela’s predecessor stated that even trusted local banks like HSBC, Bank of Valletta (BOV), Lombard Bank, Fimbank, and others similarly were fined by the FIAU. He said that these banks are still trusted despite this, because “they had an issue and solved it.”
Muscat commented that Vbet – which is owned by the same umbrella company “Soft Construct” – sponsors the current world champions of football, the Argentinian national team, the Ukrainian Premier League, Northern Ireland’s women’s league cup, and other top teams like Monaco, Nice, Dynamo Kiev, and Botafogo.
“As you know, a company that sponsors the World Champions led by Messi is not good enough for the Maltese league,” Muscat remarked sarcastically.
He observed that YoHealth has begun functioning in Malta and some Maltese people have already claimed tickets and footballs through the application.
Muscat added that YoHealth, “a new brand being launched internationally”, is owned by the same group that owns Vbet and Fastex (SGCO Ltd) and reminded that this umbrella group is licensed by the MGA. Hence, he asked if the journalists publishing this story were implying that the people at the MGA “didn’t do their job properly when they licensed them.”
Concluding his statement, Muscat said he hopes to see soft drink companies, “that were mentioned by some,” and other companies to support Maltese sport as strongly as YoHealth is.
When speaking to Times of Malta, an anonymous Premier League club official told the newsroom that they held personal reservations against YoHealth being the league’s main sponsor due to reputational reasons; the official added that it would have been better if the Maltese Premier League was sponsored by “an established company like Pepsi.”
High-ranking Premier League club officials expressed their satisfaction with the lucrative €250,000 supplied by YoHealth – especially with last year’s sponsor being valued at €150,000, and with the Premier League’s previous long-time sponsor, Bank of Valletta (BOV), offering “a meagre sum” of €70,000 in comparison in years past.