Soccer Players Who Gamble

Real Madrid, Paris-Saint Germain, Manchester United, and even teams like FC Ventspils are some of the examples of teams that has soccer players whose hobbies include attending various casinos around the world, where they are treated like the stars they are and always have their place reserved.

Elite athletes famous for their achievements inside the stadiums transcend beyond the sports pages. Many soccer players, who have become celebrities, also fill the pages of society or entertainment because of their fondness for casino games and high stakes betting.

With the development of online casinos, there are not few sports figures who have become faces of these casinos. They not only promote the brands but also highlight the advantages of playing on the web. You can feel on the same level as the stars playing where they are, preview our best online casino reviews uk.

On the other hand, traditional casinos – Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, etc. – invite the following soccer players to play in their facilities. Thus, the most famous players who like to gamble visit the VIP areas to enjoy themselves without being harassed.

Gianluigi Buffon

Gianluigi Buffon is a legendary goalkeeper and an Italian soccer icon. After an astonishing career at Juventus, he now plays for Parma Calcio in Italy’s Serie B and does not hide one of his great hobbies: gambling. Especially, he is more interested in sports betting and poker. 

This player was linked to illegal gambling activities in the years 2006 and 2012, before playing in the World Cup. It was reported that he bet the amount of 1.5 million euros. 

Despite being tried, he was found not guilty and never stopped gambling online. In fact, he was a PokerStars ambassador for a while.

So, after having played all the major international events, he’s not only one of the most famous soccer gamblers of all times, but he’s a proud image of online betting and iGaming activities.

David Beckham

He’s one of the most famous soccer players in history – and even a symbol of men’s fashion, mainly thanks to his good looks. Unfortunately, soccer isn’t on the menu for this icon anymore. Nowadays, David Beckham, former Manchester United, LA Galaxy, and Real Madrid star has become involved in the gambling business – where he’s also rather good at. Since the day he left soccer, Beckham has spent a lot of time in the best casinos located in Las Vegas making big bets, with some very interesting wins.

In fact, Beckham is involved in the industry as an investor, but also as a gambler. It seems that the blond’s new bet is to invest more money in casinos in Singapore and Macau.

Why Macau? Well, because it’s currently the gambling mecca for land-based casino tourists and fans, given that the famous Venetian Casino is the biggest one worldwide. Not a bad move for England’s most handsome ex-player.

Gerard Piqué

Coming from the outstanding Masia (the “Farmhouse”), Barça’s youth academy, Piqué has been part of the most recent and triumphant era at Barcelona. After having spent just his first years at Manchester United, Piqué has basically won it all at FC Barcelona – never having played again in another team, not even in Spain.

The defense player was first seen in 2011, in one of the poker parallels in which he finished third with €40,950. Due to this good luck, it seems that Piqué wanted to continue trying his luck, and in 2013 he was seen in his first WSOP Main Event.  

From there, his passion for the game took him all the way to the EPT Barcelona in 2017, where he won some €129,000. If that wasn’t enough, in 2019 he surpassed his record winnings and was ahead of his teammate, Arturo Vidal, with a figure of €352,950.

Wayne Rooney

Rooney could be called England’s last super striker – one that’s know all over the world for his skills, goals, and perhaps even gambling infamous “skills”.

This former English footballer became well known in the world of casinos online for suffering the worst relationship between soccer and poker known so far. 

In 2008, Wayne Rooney lost a total of 65,000 pounds playing poker in just two hours. We don’t know exactly how much his poker bankroll was at the time, but it is claimed that from this card game he moved on to blackjack, suffering more losses on a consistent basis. 

From blackjack, he is said to have moved on to roulette, where he also had bad luck and continued to lose. 

To his credit, we can state that these losses did not matter much to him, and despite losing his salary quite easily, his soccer talent served as a balance. There is no doubt that he was bad on the casino floor, but not on the soccer field.

Cristiano Ronaldo

After Portugal’s most famous player called Figo, the world witnessed the most majestic uprising of the countries all-time greatest soccer player ever. His name was Cristiano Ronaldo, and to this day, this 5-time best football player of the world is still going strong.

He’s the player with the most goals at international level is also passionate about online casino games, specifically poker. 

In fact, he is another of those footballers who does not hide his fondness (why should he?) and is often photographed every time he sits at a table to play his cards. 

Cristiano Ronaldo’s love for this game began when he was just 20 years old and would play for hours with his friends at home. In May 2015, the Portuguese signed a deal with the world’s best-known poker company, PokerStars. In doing so, he confessed that although soccer is his world, poker has always been his game.

Neymar

We don’t know what it is about poker that attracts so many soccer players around the world. 

Some, like Neymar, are completely in love by it to the point that the Brazilian said in an interview that, once he retires from the field and puts his soccer career aside, he wants to become a professional poker player. 

Undoubtedly, poker is one of the things he likes the most and playing in a legitimate online casino may be part of his hobby. 

However, the time he spends on soccer leaves him little free time to sign up for tournaments – who knows if he will become a gambling star when he retires.

Until then, we’ll be able to enjoy his amazing skills playing for Paris-Saint Germain and also the Canarinho (Brazilian National Soccer Team).

Conclusion

The soccer players we just mentioned in this article aren’t just some of the most famous one’s that stepped foot on a soccer field these last decades, but they are also really famous gamblers – and skilled ones (not counting Wayne Rooney here).

None of them have prohibited themselves from playing, and some even promote openly online gaming. In fact, if we add the eccentric Zlatan Ibrahimović to this list, then we have the all-time greatest players – all being happily part of this iGaming adventure.