Joey D'Urso Profile picture
Investigations Writer covering football for @TheAthleticFC / DMs open or jdurso@theathletic.com
Nov 2, 2022 5 tweets 3 min read
I've been working on this for the past two months, travelling all over Europe, and am very excited about it. Subscribe to "Away From Home" wherever you get your podcasts... I was lucky enough to do quite a bit of the reporting on this project and you can hear me on several episodes, but this is @AdamCrafton_ 's idea and baby. 👏

A proper team effort under a lot of time pressure - @abipaterson @jessehoward @Mike_Stavrou @adeymoorhead @Bezelveld 👏
Jun 28, 2022 25 tweets 9 min read
🚨📉 Months of reporting in one place here. Almost every Premier League club has promoted unregulated cryptocurrencies to fans which have completely tanked in value, exposing fans to big losses. A club-by-club run down.
theathletic.com/3378407/2022/0… 🔴⚪️ ARSENAL

Arsenal's Socios fan token, for which the Advertising Standards Authority said the club “trivialised investment in cryptoassets and took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity”.

My first big Socios investigation here: theathletic.com/2774492/2021/0… Image
Sep 24, 2021 12 tweets 4 min read
This is bonkers. A pro-crypto "education site" dedicated to debunking criticisms" of cryptocurrency.

No disclaimers. (The Financial Conduct Authority says "if you invest in cryptoassets, you should be prepared to lose all your money.) Who runs this company/website? Where is it based? Are they financially invested in people buying cryptocurrency, and therefore unsuitable to give "educational advice" about it?

We have no idea, there is literally no information on the website!
Sep 23, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
As an example of the sort of company we're likely to see a lot more of in football after a gambling ban, here is Leicester City's new record sponsor, based in Cyprus. No me neither. I have placed bets on football, I understand what that is.

I do not understand what trading a CFD is, but given my demographic status as a young man who likes football, I am bombarded with adverts for it. Have you ever traded CFDs? DMs open...
Mar 23, 2021 11 tweets 4 min read
New: I've spoken to multiple Football Index employees about the biggest disaster to afflict gamblers in British history.

Much under condition of anonymity because, in the words of one, "I don't want to be in the Netflix documentary when it comes out."
theathletic.com/2463807/2021/0… 💥 Staff found out about administration on Twitter and got emailed 45 mins later

💥Instant Sell function "like a cash point" which "blew up bubble"

💥 Claims that"2% of users lose money"

💥Links to industry bigwigs

💥Staff and Gambling Commission "didn't understand product"
Mar 22, 2021 6 tweets 3 min read
(1)
Interesting that WBA have not gone with a gambling sponsor here. They're the exact sort of club most attractive to obscure gambling firms - in and out of the PL, so far cheaper to sponsor than the big guns, but still plastered all over Chinese TV screens regularly. (2)
WBA had Chinese writing on their gambling sponsored kit for 4 of the last 10 seasons.

My big investigation into shirt sponsorship, and why Chinese writing is often a sign of facilitating illegal gambling via Malta/The Isle of Man/The Philippines 👇
theathletic.co.uk/2361984/2021/0…
Mar 6, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
I'm handing this in soon! I've had a brilliant 3.5 years here, mainly covering politics with a great team at a thrilling time.👍

Lots of Twitter chat about the BBC revolves around a relatively small proportion of output, so here's some stuff I've come to love since working here: The World Service is an absolute gem, on radio and digital. I had the privilege of meeting some BBC journalists in Serbia last week they were so great. The WS reaches a massive, young, diverse audience every day and does amazing investigations:
bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-…
Dec 20, 2019 12 tweets 11 min read
Logging off here for a month or so. I've loved doing original stories about the online election for @BBCtrending with @mariannaspring @mwendling

Big Theme: the internet is changing politics, but it's not just a story about data and bots... it's about ordinary Brits!

Thread👇 We found that Facebook groups discussing Brexit are stuffed full of horrible threats and violent language. The people doing this lose their inhibitions when hidden behind a computer screen and probably wouldn't say those things in real life.
bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-tre…
Nov 21, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
This is the sort of misinformation that's really hard to stop. It sounds scientific but it's utterly wrong. Quick explanation of why: If you do a poll you need a 'representative sample', of rich, poor, young, old, Labour, Tory, Leave, Remain. This is hard and expensive work, but you can get a pretty decent snapshot from 1000-2000 voters.
Nov 5, 2019 8 tweets 6 min read
EXCLUSIVE with @mariannaspring

A misleading story about Jo Swinson is spreading like wildfire on Facebook. We tracked down the Welshman, Englishmen and 'Italian Henry VIII' who turned an obscure tweet into one of this election's biggest online stories.
bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-tre… @mariannaspring Swinson's husband Duncan Hames works for an NGO which got a €4m grant from the EU. But through online Chinese whispers, loads of people are now saying Swinson opposes Brexit because she personally profits from the EU - which is wrong.

The numbers on these stories are huge...
Jun 10, 2019 9 tweets 4 min read
(1/9)
Bermondsey Street v Blaneau Gwent, a thread

@ONS data shows places in England and Wales where households earn over £60,000 before tax, from Pay As You Earn income and benefits - excluding self-assessed income. Limited dataset but a fascinating one..
ons.gov.uk/census/censust… (2/9)
Here are the local authorities with the highest proportion of households earning £60k+ from PAYE income and benefits. Fairly unsurprising but note for virtually all areas it's pretty low, less than 1 in 8 (although richer areas will have far more people on self-assessment).
Apr 15, 2019 8 tweets 4 min read
These maps are really great. They also show why it's good to avoid describing whole cities or counties as 'Leave' or 'Remain' - most places were pretty close, and if you arbitrarily tweak one boundary in the suburbs you can flip it. HT @undertheraedar
statsmapsnpix.com/2019/04/suffer… Here's a good example. Stroud and Cotswold were slightly Remain, Wilshire and South Gloucestershire slightly Leave. But all were 45-55 or narrower - pretty much half and half. Conventional maps can make Britain seem a lot more divided than it really is.
Feb 28, 2019 11 tweets 3 min read
1/ I've noticed this trend quite a lot recently - campaigners publicly calling out on Twitter for a meeting with a politician at short notice, then publicly shaming them when they don't get it. 2/ Pro-EU youth group OFOC has 50,000 followers so that tweet got a lot of traction. Kevin Foster, Conservative MP for Torbay, has 5,000 so his reply didn't get as much. But this seems like a fairly decent excuse...