Premier League Footballer Blows £15 million Fortune

by ThePOGG - May 13, 2017

A whistle-blower working for an online gambling company has revealed that an English Premier League football player has lost an estimated £15 million on gambling, funded by a contract of £2 million a year and huge sponsorship deals.

The player has had to move his family into a smaller house as he has been unable to continue to make payments on his mortgage.

This comes days after Burnley player, Joey Barton was found betting on his own potential transfer and was subsequently banned from the sport for 18 months.

These two cases have sparked a debate across the UK over the influence of gambling advertising in sport. With the names of more high profile players being linked to betting scandals likely, it is a debate that is unlikely to go away any time soon.

Further concerns with gambling addiction amongst footballers have also been raised, with managers and former players beginning to speak about the problems that they have seen when football players have vast sums of money at their disposal.

There have been calls for tighter regulations on, not only the rules surrounding sports stars and gambling but also the advertising that exists within sport.

However, the ban on gambling advertising in sport that will come into play in Australia is unlikely to be replicated in British sport as many of the big football teams rely heavily on sponsorships from online gambling companies.