Fact Check: Videos of cricketer Virat Kohli endorsing betting app ‘Aviator’ are deepfakes

Hyderabad: Several videos of Indian star cricketer Virat Kohli endorsing a betting app called ‘Aviator’ have created a buzz on social media.

Click here, here and here to view the posts.

The viral advertisements start with famous TV journalists reportedly endorsing Aviator followed by a clip of Virat Kohli promoting the same.

In the videos, ‘Kohli’ could be seen luring viewers by promising huge earnings through minimal investment.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the videos of Virat Kohli are deepfakes.

We started our investigation by running a keyword search for relevant media reports about Virat Kohli endorsing any betting app but could not find any. This is unlikely as a famous cricketer promoting a betting app would have been covered by mainstream media.

Next, on closely analyzing the viral video, we found certain discrepancies such as out-of-sync lip movements and poor-quality visuals.

This led us to dig deeper into the source of the viral videos.

We found a link tagged with the video to redirect users to download the game. The link redirected us to a casino game on the Google Play Store called ‘101F’.

We ran the keyframes from the viral video through a reverse image search and found the exact video on Reddit. In the original version of the video, Virat Kohli could be seen talking about ‘how to overcome trolling and how to come out and speak about what’s bothering’. The video is from 2017 when Virat Kohli was attending a media session post-India vs Australian match.

Moreover, we also found an extended version of the video on the YouTube channel of Cricket.com.au titled ‘Kohli credits Aussie fight but says friendships over’.

The description of the video reads, “India captain Virat Kohli hit out at critics for his below-par performance and said he was impressed with Australia’s determination before claiming the series had ruined friendships.”

During our search, we found similar fake videos of celebrities, cricketers and industrialists such as Anant Ambani, Akshay Kumar and Sachin Tendulkar; an alarmingly increasing trend of scammers weaponising Artificial Intelligence (AI). This pattern could be seen in most deepfakes used to promote shady online businesses.

To raise awareness of such issues after his deepfake was created without permission, taking to X, legend cricketer Sachin Tendulkar wrote, “These videos are fake. It is disturbing to see rampant misuse of technology. Request everyone to report videos, ads & apps like these in large numbers. Social Media platforms need to be alert and responsive to complaints. Swift action from their end is crucial to stopping the spread of misinformation and deepfakes.”

Hence, it is evident that the viral video is a deepfake. No celebrity in them has promoted the betting app ‘Aviator’.