Mike Tyson was supposed to be interviewed live by a host dressed as a giant pigeon, then teach the hosts, pigeon included, to box using a mannequin with the face of his old rival Evander Holyfield, all to promote the online casino brand Rabona. The former heavyweight champion never did it. This week in London’s High Court, Medier, which promotes Rabona, is seeking about £1.5 million (about $2 million at current exchange rates) from him and his company Tyrannic, according to court reports in The Telegraph, The Independent and The Standard.
There is no ruling yet. Medier says Tyson lost interest in the deal once he signed his Netflix fight against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul. Tyson’s side says the pigeon show went far beyond the contract. For a small business or agency hiring a creator, most of this dispute comes down to clauses you can write before signing, on top of the legal rules for influencers in France and Belgium.
A $2 million deal signed in January 2024
According to The Telegraph and The Independent, the contract set a $2 million fee, payable to Tyrannic in installments. Tyson was to promote Rabona’s “gaming services” on livestreams and attend a “PR event” at a major gambling conference in Amsterdam from July 16 to 19, 2024. Medier filed its claim in December 2024, alleging Tyson had wrongly ended the deal in March 2024, Fox News reported at the time.
Rabona’s February 6, 2024, announcement promised monthly livestreams on Twitch and Kick, with Tyson playing the brand’s casino games and possibly telling stories from his career. It made no mention of pigeons. Tyson knows the birds well, though: his fondness for racing pigeons has been well documented for years, and his autobiography, The Telegraph notes, describes how they got him through a troubled childhood in New York. He has also said he only got into fighting after beating up a man who killed one of his pigeons.
The pigeon, according to Tyson’s lawyers
According to The Independent, defense lawyer Amanda Hadkiss walked Justice Richards through the format Medier wanted: a show called “Talking Pigeons.” Tyson would be beamed in by video link to four hosts, one of them dressed as a giant pigeon, deliver scripted lines, answer questions and “share childhood stories.” Then he would teach the hosts to box on the Holyfield mannequin and play casino games on Rabona’s website.
Tyson’s side says the contract only covered filming him “playing in casino games” (slots, poker, roulette) or other “games and events” on Rabona’s website, as long as they had been “approved.” The pigeon routine went “far beyond the scope of what might reasonably be considered to have even been required,” Hadkiss told the court. Tyson and Tyrannic deny breaching the contract.
Lakiha Tyson, the boxer’s wife, runs Tyrannic and says she has managed his image for 17 years. Testifying on October 14, according to The Standard, she said it was “comical” to read the proposal now “because of the ridiculousness of it,” since it made her husband “the butt of the joke, instead of controlling his brand.” “We wanted to go viral,” she told the court, “but in a way that makes him and his brand proud, not a way that makes him look ridiculous.”
Netflix, according to Medier
Medier’s lawyer, Ali Reza Sinai, called the Netflix deal the “elephant in the room”: an exhibition bout against Jake Paul that Medier’s lawyers put at $15 million. Once that more lucrative fight was locked in, Tyson and Tyrannic “simply lost interest” in the Rabona deal, he argued, according to The Telegraph. Medier accuses them of failing to deliver the agreed livestreams and of “terminating” the contract without proper notice.
The right “inference,” Sinai said, was that Tyson and Tyrannic feared a clash with the Netflix deal, which curtailed non-fight sponsorships in the build-up: the Amsterdam conference was to end the day before the fight’s original date, July 20, 2024. The fight finally happened in November 2024, and Tyson lost. Lakiha Tyson replied that the two were “totally separate things” and that they had “several other sponsors at the time,” according to The Standard.
On cross-examination, The Standard reports, Sinai suggested the couple had been told in earlier talks that the “channel has a mascot of a pigeon which will always be present.” He then asked her: “The name of the channel is ‘Talking Pigeons’. Doesn’t that suggest to you that the pigeon would speak?”
In his closing argument, reported by the Daily Star on October 15, Sinai said Tyson and Tyrannic created “mountains out of molehills” to get out of the contract. Whatever Tyrannic thought of the script, he said, it had a duty to respond and try to improve it: “If it’s corny it can be edited.” He also said Medier had posted a photo on social media suggesting Tyson would be fighting two pigeons, and that Tyrannic had raised no objection.
Five clauses to write before signing an ambassador
These issues come up in any partnership, including one with a micro-influencer in your area.
- Describe each deliverable down to the format: length, platform, run of show, what the person will and won’t do on camera. Much of this dispute pits filming Tyson “playing in casino games” against a talk show with a mascot. Our guide on how to collaborate with influencers covers the brief.
- Write down the approval process: who signs off on the script, by when, and what happens if they say no. As early as December 2024, according to Fox News, Tyson’s lawyers said Medier had failed to get his approval of promotional materials. Any creator who cares about their personal brand will insist on the same.
- Ask for a list of existing commitments: other sponsors, exclusivity deals, periods when a broadcaster bars other sponsorships. If the Netflix contract really restricted other partnerships, as Medier argues, a disclosure clause could have flagged it sooner.
- Plan the exit: notice period, grounds for termination, what happens to installments already paid and content already delivered. Medier says Tyson’s side ended the deal without proper notice and, per Fox News in December 2024, wants the fees it paid returned.
- Spell out the countries where the content can run, and make sure you can enforce that technically. The defense faults Medier, per the Daily Star, for failing to limit the livestream to countries where it could use Tyson’s likeness.
The same livestream in France or Belgium
Above an amount set by decree, France’s commercial influence law (law no. 2023-451 of June 9, 2023) requires the contract between an influencer and an advertiser or its agency to be in writing, or it is void. Article 8 lists what it must include: the parties’ identities, the nature of the work, compensation, each side’s rights and obligations (including intellectual property) and French law as governing law when the target audience is in France. The advertiser, the influencer and their intermediaries are jointly liable for damage caused to third parties in carrying out that contract.
On gambling, Article 4 of the law, in the version in force since July 1, 2026, lets influencers promote it only on platforms that can exclude users under 18 from the audience, provided the exclusion is switched on, and with a notice that the content is off-limits to minors. Any contract with a gambling operator must also include a clause in which the influencer confirms they know these rules and agrees to follow them.
Belgium’s royal decree of February 27, 2023, published in the Belgian Official Gazette on March 8, 2023, and mostly in force since July 1, 2023, lets licensed gambling operators use only the forms of advertising it lists. Its Article 17 bans ads that show real people or fictional characters, or that use the voices of famous people. Its accompanying report to the King names athletes, actors and influencers. A former world champion would have no place there as a brand ambassador, and a pigeon mascot looks a lot like a fictional character.
Open questions
Both accounts come from British press reports of the arguments and testimony. We haven’t seen the contract. The size of the claim depends on the source: about £1.5 million in British coverage of the hearing, more than $1.5 million in Fox News’s report on the December 2024 filing (more than $800,000 in fees to be returned plus $729,000 in production and promotion costs). The amounts already paid differ too: nearly $190,000 according to The Telegraph and The Independent, $833,334 according to Medier, per the Daily Star.
The ruling will decide, among other things, whether a contract to film someone “playing in casino games” also covers a scripted talk show with a mascot. Write yours so nobody ever has to ask a judge. To scope a creator collaboration before you sign, see our influencer marketing services.
