JAKARTA - DRX Wear Apparel has started to launch surprising maneuvers in Liga 1 2024/2025. They have become the official apparel of six clubs in Indonesia's highest league level.
The six clubs in question are Dewa United, PSIS Semarang, Madura United, Persik Kediri, PSS Sleman, and PSM Makassar.
DRX's sudden emergence two seasons ago. They immediately penetrated Liga 1 in the 2023/2024 season by sponsoring Dewa United's official jersey.
This season, they have been able to control a third of Liga 1 clubs. This certainly raises questions.
As a newcomer, DRX's quick steps have also raised a lot of speculation. The problem is, their brand is not yet known to the public.
When Liga 1 clubs began to switch to local apparel, they started by collaborating with well-known local brands.
This season, Specs--as a brand that has long been known in the country--is still dominating by collaborating with Bali United, Borneo FC, and Malut United.
The rest, the clubs choose brands that are produced by themselves. Namely Persib (Sportama), Arema (Etams), Persebaya (AZA), Barito Putera (H), Persita Tangerang (1953), Semen Padang (SPFC Apparel), PSBS Biak (Kusumasa), and Persis Solo.
DRX's movement is clearly an anomaly. If you want to compare it, Juaraga is a similar apparel.
However, Juaraga has only sponsored Persija Jakarta from the 2020/2021 season until now.
The alleged involvement of Mister T, who has recently been widely discussed as the alleged controller of online gambling (judol) behind DRX Wear, has also surfaced. Because of that, DRX Wear maneuvered very boldly.
Mister T's Involvement
In Tempo Magazine's investigation, the initials T are strongly suspected of having spread throughout Indonesian sports.
The mystery of Mister T as the alleged actor controlling online gambling has been clarified.
The figure of Mister T is associated with the name Tommy Hermawan Lo. The initials surfaced after being echoed by the Head of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency, Benny Rhamdani.
Referring to Tempo's report, Mister T is not a new person in Indonesian sports. Tommy Hermawan Lo filled the position of Treasurer General of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (NOC Indonesia) in the two most recent periods (2019-2023 and 2023-2027).
In fact, Tommy serves as a commissioner and holder of 99 shares of PT Dewa Utd Indonesia, which oversees the League 1 club, the Indonesian Basketball League basketball club, and Dewa United esports.
Linking Tommy Hermawan Lo to Mister T cannot be separated from his background as the second child of the founder of the JHL Group business group, Jerry Hermawan Lo.
JHL Group has businesses in the hospitality, property, mining, automotive, and media sectors.
However, Jerry is known to have a casino in Cambodia, precisely in Sihanoukville, called Kompong Dewa Casino.
This was revealed through a Youtube video interview with lawyer Alvin Lim two years ago which was recently popular on the X account and became a topic of conversation.
"I asked him (Jerry Hermawan Lo), is it true that you are a bookie? Let's not talk about it outside but when we meet the person we don't talk about it."
"He replied, 'In the past, yes. Not now. Now I should be given an award'."
"He continued, 'I have a gambling called Kompong Dewa in Cambodia working with the government there and getting permission. I create jobs for Indonesia. There are many Indonesian migrant workers who are sales, marketing, casino employees. My customers are mainland Chinese, not Indonesians'," said Alvin Lim.
Mister T's octopus in sports is suspected of also spreading to apparel, namely jerseys. An apparel called DRX Wear that has just emerged immediately made a splash.
DRX Wear first became a sponsor of Dewa United FC, a club owned by Tommy. In just a few months, DRX Wear immediately controlled several League 1 clubs as the main apparel.
The alleged involvement of Tommy behind DRX Wear cannot be separated from the closeness of one of the apparel's top brass, namely Kash Topan who serves as Chief Marketing Officer. On Kash's personal Instagram account, he has uploaded several photos with Tommy.
DRX's Feud with Riors
The presence of DRX Wear has caused a war between local apparel. DRX's collaboration with PSIS Semarang this season has made Riors, the previous apparel, furious.
The reason is, Riors has collaborated with PSIS Semarang since League 2 2017. Suddenly in League 1 2024/2025, Laskar Mahesa Jenar ended their collaboration with Riors.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PSIS Semarang, Yoyok Sukawi, implied that DRX Wear was able to go all out to strengthen the club's finances.
"We apologize to Riors for having to resign from the cooperation agreement early. We are very sorry," said Yoyok Sukawi, in May 2024.
"However, we have to do it to strengthen the club's finances. We hope that Riors will continue to grow and be more successful in the future," said Yoyok again.
Riors has not made a statement regarding PSIS's withdrawal from the cooperation agreement this season. However, in their official account upload on X, Riors made fun of the cooperation between DRX Wear and PSIS Semarang.
"Money can buy your pride, not our class," read Riors' upload on the @riors_id account.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
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