In a move ostensibly to show solidarity with LGBT people the betting company has said that it will donate 10K each time Russia scores a goal during the upcoming World Cup. The money will be donated to The Attitude Magazine Foundation who intend to use it to promote LGBT+ inclusivity in Sports,

Paddy Power has lined up a range of celebrities including Caitlyn Jenner to promote the pledge and has said it will donate at least fifty thousand pounds to LGBT+ charities.

In a tone-deaf statement accompanying the announcement Paddy Power said, “Given they invented Russian Dolls, you’d be forgiven for thinking Russia wouldn’t have an issue with women being into other women. Likewise, their appreciation for bears is one shared around the world by the LGBT+ population, so it really is astonishing that they have not used their stewardship of this tournament to champion LGBT+ inclusivity.”

In a statement to GCN, Coppinger said, “Paddy Power are quite blasé in the way they approach serious social issues like violence against women or violence against the LGBT+ community. In 2015 they were taking bets on the outcome of the Oscar Pistorius trial and running tasteless advertisements based on the murder of an innocent  woman

“Violence against women has been de-criminalised in Putin’s Russia and it’s outrageous that the World Cup is even taking place there and Paddy Power are cynically exploiting violence against women and LGBT+ people for their own commercial interests.

“Gambling is a huge problem in society and I would not be in favor of any promotion around it”

This is the latest gaffe from the betting company who in earlier pre-tournament campaigns appeared to spray paint a polar bear. The company later admitted that the footage was faked.

Last year the company made £330 million pounds in profit in UK and Ireland the same year it was reported that over 40,000 Irish people now struggle with gambling addiction.