SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

DoubleVerify has published research with YouGov showing that fewer than half of UK consumers feel confident identifying AI-generated content online. It also said it had uncovered a network of AI-generated sports websites targeting UK football fans.

The survey of 2,000 UK consumers found that 41% felt confident spotting AI-generated content, while 92% said its rise was making it harder to trust information online. Another 81% said they were concerned about encountering fake or misleading AI content designed to appear genuine.

The findings point to a gap between public concern about synthetic media and people’s ability to recognise it in practice. DoubleVerify linked that gap to a cluster of more than 40 UK-based sports domains that it said were producing AI-written articles and pushing them into large online fan communities.

“As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, the challenge now shifts to identifying it,” said Stuart Flint, Managing director, EMEA, DoubleVerify. “Consumers are increasingly sceptical, but they don’t feel equipped to distinguish between authentic and synthetic content. That creates a meaningful vulnerability across the open web and social platforms.”

Sports network

The websites identified by DoubleVerify use generic names such as sportupdatenow, soccertrend and sportmoves. Some publish more than 10 sports articles a day without clearly identified editorial staff or original reporting, according to the company.

DoubleVerify said the material ranged from fully AI-generated articles to AI-rewritten stories copied from established UK news publishers. In some cases, the stories included fabricated quotes attributed to real athletes and public figures.

The company described the distribution tactic as “FanFarming”, a process in which links to the articles are seeded into established sports fan groups on major online platforms. The aim, it said, was to draw readers back to websites that then monetise the traffic through advertising.

Based on DoubleVerify’s estimates, including distribution through fan pages, the network has already been exposed to hundreds of thousands of UK sports fans. Several of the domains also appeared to carry malicious advertising, the report said.

How it spreads

The report said sports fan communities are particularly vulnerable because they are built around breaking news, transfer rumours and match reaction. Posts often use urgent language to encourage clicks, then direct users to pages filled with display advertising.

One example involved an article on sportsrock.co.uk that attributed a fabricated quote to Sir Alex Ferguson about a Manchester United transfer target. DoubleVerify said the article was later shared in an online fan group called Fabrizio Romano Transfer News, which it said had 3.8 million members.

DoubleVerify said there was no evidence Ferguson had made the quoted statement. It added that the underlying transfer rumour was real, but the quote was invented.

Another example involved a story circulated in a Chelsea fan group that used a real match result as the basis for an alleged “locker room crisis”. According to DoubleVerify, the article relied on invented quotes, while the actual post-match comments from club captain Reece James had been routine and had not criticised teammates or the manager.

The report also described an Arsenal-related post claiming defender Myles Lewis-Skelly had said it was “time for me to join Chelsea” after being “thrown under the bus”. DoubleVerify said neither the transfer development nor the statement had occurred.

Ad risk

DoubleVerify said advertisements from major brands had appeared on some of the sites when campaigns did not include protections against low-quality AI-generated content. It argued that this exposed advertisers to reputational risk while also diverting spending from established publishers.

Some of the same accounts repeatedly posted links to several domains in the network within the same online communities, suggesting coordinated distribution across multiple sites, DoubleVerify said. It also said the model could generate thousands of pages and millions of potential ad impressions at low cost.

The research comes as concern grows across the media and advertising industries over the spread of AI-generated articles, images and videos that mimic legitimate reporting. The issue is particularly sensitive in sport, where transfer speculation and fast-moving news can make false claims seem plausible.

DoubleVerify said the challenge was not limited to football. In the first weeks of the year alone, its fraud unit identified thousands of similar sites across several languages, showing how quickly automated publishing is scaling across the wider web.

“This is a trust gap at scale,” said Flint. “Consumers know there’s a problem, but they don’t feel equipped to identify it. That creates an opening for bad actors to insert low-quality, AI-generated content into environments people already trust, like sports fan communities.”

Unipart, which employs more than 1,000 people in its head office and warehouse, labelled its HQ as “not fit for purpose”.

And with the lease due to expire in August 2027, its future from Garsington Road is being reconsidered.

Dame Anneliese, the Labour MP for Oxford East, said: “I have been seeking a meeting with Unipart, which I hope can happen soon.

“I was very concerned to hear about the potential closure of the Unipart HQ and warehouse, given the impact that this would have on local people.”

Unipart has so far not responded to our request for further information surrounding its future in the city.

This newspaper has asked whether it would look to stay in Oxford, Oxfordshire or move outside the county.

We have also asked why the building is no longer fit for purpose and whether any jobs are under threat.

Historically, Unipart has closed operations in Oxford before. The company shut down its Woodstock Road factory in 1998, with operations transferring to Coventry.

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While the Cowley site is currently under the microscope, Unipart maintains a long-term presence in Oxfordshire and recently secured a major new seven-year production logistics contract at the neighboring MINI Plant in Cowley.

If the head office and warehouse was to close in Cowley, the multi-million-pound deal would not be affected by this.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the company said previously: “Unipart confirms that it is reviewing future options for its head office, currently at Unipart House, Cowley, in Oxford.

“The current lease expires in August 2027 and the site is no longer fit for purpose for its workplace needs.

“Unipart is using this as an opportunity to identify a solution that provides a modern, collaborative, sustainable workplace for colleagues.

“The current lease ends in 2032 for Unipart’s Cowley warehouse, with a break clause in August 2027, so a review has also begun to explore options for this.

“It is discussing this with relevant colleagues and colleague forums and will keep them fully updated on developments.”

John Neill, the former chairman of Uniparts, said in 2023 that investment could be shifted to the United States or Europe due to subsidies overseas.

Mr Neill announced his retirement after 50 years in 2024.

Unipart has been based in Cowley since the brand’s inception in 1974.

Originally formed as the parts division for British Leyland, the logistics and manufacturing giant has operated out of its Garsington Road headquarters for over half a century.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Khova has launched a performance platform for multi-location retail and hospitality businesses, designed to help frontline teams work more consistently across sites.

The Amsterdam-based company says the platform brings operational data into a single system and turns it into daily action plans for individual locations. It is aimed at retailers and hospitality groups running multiple sites that want store or venue managers to act on live information before the trading day begins.

According to Khova, the platform draws on sales figures, staffing levels, audits, customer reviews, and external factors such as weather and local events. Managers then receive a prioritised view of the issues and opportunities that need attention at their site.

The product enters a market where operators already use multiple dashboards, planning systems, and reporting tools, but often struggle to turn those inputs into clear actions on the shop floor. Khova argues this can leave performance varying significantly between locations, depending on who is on duty and how information is interpreted.

Daily priorities

Managers using the system can review what happened the previous day and what should be addressed next. That may include recognising strong results, responding to customer feedback, or dealing with an operational issue identified through incoming data.

Recommended actions can also be turned into tasks through integrated communication and training tools, with those tasks assigned directly to team members. Khova presents this as a way to connect analysis with execution at site level, rather than leaving managers to decide unaided how to act on incoming information.

The platform is positioned around operational consistency rather than data collection. Khova says many employers in retail and hospitality already have extensive information available but lack a practical way to convert it into a short list of priorities for each location.

That challenge is particularly relevant in sectors with high staff turnover, changing rotas, and dispersed estates, where local execution often shapes sales and customer experience. In such environments, one location may respond differently from another to the same pattern in trading, staffing, or feedback.

Sector focus

Khova says the platform was built specifically for the retail and hospitality sectors. Its team has more than a decade of experience across both shop-floor operations and software development.

The company also says Khova emerged from work carried out within MobieTrain. Those experiences, it says, showed that managers often need clearer direction in the moment rather than access to more information.

Khova cited Gallup research on the effect managers can have on differences in team performance and engagement. It argues that fragmented information and administrative demands can reduce the time managers spend leading daily operations.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Guy van Neck said the company developed the platform in response to the volume of data managers face from multiple sources.

“What we consistently see is that managers are overwhelmed by data from all kinds of different sources. This makes it difficult to determine what really matters today to improve performance. As a result, you see the same figures leading to very different decisions at location A compared to location B. That is why we developed Khova,” said Guy van Neck, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Khova.

Van Neck said the platform was designed to combine a wide range of operational and contextual inputs into a simplified briefing for site leaders at the start of each day.

“We bring all that data together, from sales and planning to reviews, weather information, and what is happening in the surrounding area. Every morning, the manager receives a clear overview of what happened yesterday and a short list of priorities for the day. Sometimes that means celebrating strong performance with the team. Sometimes it is a very targeted action based on customer feedback, directly linked to the people who were working at that time. Because we combine context and data, we can also see what those actions do to results over time. In that way, you help each location operate more consistently, based on what actually works on the shop floor,” said Van Neck.