What happened

UK-based gaming sites The Escapist, Videogamer, and Esports Insider were taken over by SEO agency Clickout Media in recent months, with up to 20 staff believed to have been fired.

However, rather than being honest about the changes, Clickout Media populated the sites with AI-generated content published under entirely fabricated author identities. 

One invented "writer," Brian Merrygold, was described as "an experienced iGaming and sports betting analyst" and "a lifelong gamer at heart". However, his photograph, biography, and all his articles were AI-generated. Another fake author, Callum Mercer, was also entirely fake.

The deception extended into the wider gaming world. An AI-written review by "Brian Merrygold" of the game Resident Evil Requiem was published on Videogamer and appeared on Metacritic before being swiftly removed once its AI origins were identified. 

Metacritic confirmed it will sever ties with any publication found to publish AI-generated reviews. 

To compound matters, sacked staff were also reportedly treated poorly throughout. Former employees, including Videogamer senior gaming editor Cat Bussell and The Escapist writer Lloyd Coombes, confirmed their redundancies on social media. 

Employees were also reportedly forced to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to receive their severance payouts. 

Why it happened

Clickout Media appears to have acquired the websites to deliver links and mentions to gambling websites, using the established reputations of those sites to game Google rankings. 

Clickout Media describes itself as a "PR and marketing agency" but has a history of acquiring gaming and tech sites, firing staff, and replacing them with automated content focused on casinos and cryptocurrency. Their sites are monetised through links to online casino sites.

Clickout Media's name rarely appears on the sites it acquires, and previous reports have accused the organisation of "parasitic SEO": buying reputable domains and filling them with casino and crypto content. 

Meanwhile, sites such as Videogamer continued to carry trust statements assuring readers their content came from human gaming experts. The claim was, at best, knowingly misleading.