Rabona sues Mike Tyson over a scrapped ad deal involving a giant pigeon

Medier Ltd, the company behind the Rabona gambling brand, is suing Mike Tyson and his promotional company Tyrannic in London’s High Court over a sponsorship deal that fell apart in 2024. According to Casino.org, Medier is also naming Tyson’s wife, Lakiha Spicer, who controls Tyrannic, and the claim being argued before Mr Justice Richards sits at roughly $1.5 to 1.6 million, depending on which outlet’s conversion of the £1.5 million figure you use. The contract itself, signed in January 2024, was worth around $2 million paid in instalments, and Tyson had collected close to $190,000 of it before the relationship broke down.

The specific scene at the center of the case is almost too strange to need embellishing. Medier’s planned Rabona livestream called for four presenters, one in a full giant pigeon costume, interviewing Tyson about his childhood before he demonstrated boxing technique on a mannequin built to resemble Evander Holyfield. Tyson was also supposed to play casino games live on Rabona’s site and make an appearance at the iGB Live 2024 industry conference in Amsterdam that July. None of that happened. Medier’s attorney, Ali Reza Sinai, told the court Tyson “simply lost interest” once a far more lucrative opportunity landed: a Jake Paul exhibition fight originally set for July 20, 2024 that eventually moved to November and streamed on Netflix for a reported $15 million, calling that deal “the elephant in the room” behind Tyson’s withdrawal from Rabona.

Tyson and Tyrannic’s defense doesn’t deny the fight changed his priorities, it disputes that the pigeon livestream was ever something he agreed to in the first place. His attorney, Amanda Hadkiss, argued the contract limited Tyson’s obligations to playing games on Rabona’s own website, describing the scripted pigeon show as “of a very different nature” from what the deal actually covered. That’s the entire legal question the court has to settle: whether a boxer who agreed to play slots and roulette on camera also implicitly agreed to a scripted comedy bit with a man in a bird costume, or whether Medier tried to stretch a straightforward platform-promotion contract into something closer to a variety show. The hearing is ongoing, and no ruling has been issued. For a brand ambassador deal built entirely around Tyson’s name recognition, the case is a reminder that sports figures signed to gambling brands can walk away on their own terms, especially once a bigger payday shows up mid-contract.