Footballers Who Were Caught Gambling

Football is one of the world's biggest sports, and one of the ways in which this is shown is by the number of people who bet on football. The football betting market is huge. One of the biggest betting markets there is. The market is so appealing to many, all we hear all day long on sport talk shows is about upcoming football betting bonuses, it’s plastered all over the internet through ads and even on the television.

Because of this, it appeases the masses, which includes footballers themselves. Yes, that’s right, footballers themselves have been caught being involved in football betting. In this article, we’ll uncover some stories on footballers who gambled in the past and were caught! For those not aware, football betting is illegal for footballers. They are not allowed to engage in it. However, they can still get involved in casino betting. So for example, if they were to use a huge gambling operator like BoyleSports, they cannot use their sports betting platform, but they can plat at the Boylesports online casino.

Sandro Tonali

The most recent case of a footballer getting caught betting is Tonali. Tonali was signed by Newcastle and started strong, he seemed like he was the signing that would keep Newcastle in a great position and push them on further. He was one of Milan's best players and was a constant in Team of the Week’s in Italy and was awarded a big money move because of this.

However, as the season was starting to get busier, the Italian maestro got banned by the FA for 10 months after admitting that he bet on his former club Milan to win games. This form of betting in football is massively frowned upon as it could be seen as match-fixing. The suspension he was awarded was a lighter sentence than originally planned, the reduction of the sentence was awarded because he cooperated with the FA taking his punishment down from 3 years.

Ivan Toney

Another one of the biggest cases to come out of the Premier League, Ivan Toney was awarded an 8-month ban after he admitted to betting 232 times over 4 years spanning 2017 to 2021. Ivan Toney was unable to play or train with his team until January 16th of this year.

Ivan Toney’s case is one of the most severe cases in the history of the Premier League and was one of the biggest in recent memory before Sandro Tonali’s. Toney also cooperated with FA and spoke about being a gambling addict which was an overall positive as he brought more attention to this subject. With Ivan Toney being one of the best strikers in the league, he was sorely missed and hopefully, we won’t be talking about him breaking the FA’s laws again. Luckily, Toney was different to Tonali as he didn't bet on his team.

Joey Barton

Over the last few months, Joey Barton has become a controversial figure for his footballing takes on the social platform X, but fans of football will know about the long-standing controversies that clouded his career. He was known for having a wild temper and being a bit of a rule-breaker.

The former QPR man was awarded an 18-month ban in 2017 for placing over 1200 bets in ten years. The ban came while he was playing at Burnley and after he appealed the ban was reduced to 13 months. After the ban was awarded the Englishman retired from football and went into management.

The betting incidents spread from 2006 to 2016, during these years he bet on a team he was registered to 42 times. Although he never bet on the team while he was playing this is still completely against the FA rules as we know. Some of the teams he played for included Manchester City, Manchester United and Marseille, so it is safe to say that his career was an overall success even if it ended negatively.

These three players are not the only players who have broken the betting restrictions in football and they also won't be the last. Betting is a massive form of entertainment and if it wasn't for the possibility of match-fixing we could see the laws and suspensions being lighter.