Why Athletes Cannot Bet on Sports in 2021

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Posted: April 9, 2021

Updated: April 9, 2021

  • In football and tennis, athletes, coaches, and referees are prohibited from placing bets.
  • Although sometimes the facts come up that football or tennis players made a bet through their acquaintances, relatives, or friends.
  • In this article, we will explain why athletes cannot bet on sports.
Almost every betting player dreams of making successful forecasts. The main condition for this is the ability to competently analyze sports events and calculate how profitable this or that bet will be. However, in football and tennis, athletes, coaches, and referees are prohibited from placing bets. Moreover, sports players cannot bet on their victory. Although sometimes the facts come up that football or tennis players made a bet through their acquaintances, relatives, or friends. In this article, we will explain why athletes cannot bet on sports. 

Why football players cannot bet on sports

After all, as you know, football players should not place bets not only on matches with their participation but also on football matches in general. Although this rule does not apply to all championships. For example, in Russia, they do not have a total ban on betting for athletes. Sports law only prohibits betting on those competitions where the athletes are directly present. However, not everything is as simple as it seems in this regard, because the rules have changed over time. Besides, some of the players even managed to escape punishment, although they played in bookmakers. Let's take a look at the stories of famous sports bettors and the consequences of why athletes cannot bet on sports.

Daniel Sturridge

Why Athletes Cannot Bet on Sports
Sturridge - Eric The Fish from UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The ex-Liverpool forward was suspended for 6 weeks and was required to pay a £ 75,000 fine for betting on sports. However, the situation here is slightly different than betting on football matches. In 2018, Sturridge's cousin made a £ 10,000 bet on Sturridge's move to Sevilla. The investigation revealed the fact of the transfer of insider information by the Englishman since the bet was made at a time when the parties were close to signing the contract. However, the bookmakers did not know about it yet. Therefore, Daniel was accused of disclosing data and using a relative as a frontman to make a bet at BC. This is why athletes cannot bet on sports. Anyway, if you are not a professional football player, you can always visit online sportsbooks in the USA.

Why athletes cannot bet on sports: Paul Scholes

From 2015 to 2019 Paul Scholes made about 140 bets on football matches. It is noteworthy that Scholes made bets not only as a Manchester United player but also as a head coach at Oldham Athletic. The Englishman himself repented of his misconduct and said that he had not previously known that the game in bookmakers could be against the established rules. Indeed, he made bets on matches with the participation of those teams with which he was not personally associated. The investigation revealed the following facts that Scholes placed 8 bets on Manchester United matches while former teammates Giggs and Butt were still working there. Meanwhile, one bet was placed on Valencia to beat Barcelona while Harry Neville, also a former team-mate of Scholes, was still Valencia's top coach. Finally, he placed 8 bets on FA Cup matches for which he received a huge fine. Gamble safely in the Bet Online Sportsbook after reading How to Choose the Best Competitions to Bet on.

Gianluigi Buffon

Why Athletes Cannot Bet on Sports
Gianluigi Buffon - Doha Stadium Plus Qatar from Doha, Qatar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Few know about this story, but the outstanding Gigi Buffon was even summoned for interrogation by the police because of sports betting. However, the great football player managed to avoid punishment. In 2006, Italy has accepted a law prohibiting athletes from placing bets in the BC. After that, goalkeeper Buffon also went to interrogations several times. Then he admitted that he played in BC, but never bet on matches with his team. Moreover, he did not bet on the Italian championship as a whole. He only bet on international football, which was not prohibited by the rules at the time. However, Buffon still had to undergo some inconveniences because of his hobby. This is why athletes cannot bet on sports. To avoid this situation, gamble safely in online sportsbooks in the USA. Read more about Sports Betting Trends to increase your chances of winning.

Why athletes cannot bet on sports in tennis

And here is one of the answers to why, for example, tennis players should not bet on their victory. First, there is the fact that many bookmakers make a return on the bet if one of the tennis players refuses to continue the match. Besides, an athlete can bet in the BC on his victory, and if he starts to lose, he is simply removed from the match. Thus, he loses the match but does not lose the money put in the bookmaker's office. As they say, failure on the court, but the wallet was not damaged. For example, at one tournament of the Futures series in Spain, the Belgian tennis player Axel Frank withdrew from the match at the opponent's triple match point. For you to understand, to win, Frank's opponent had only 1 point to win. However, instead of missing this point, the Belgian simply withdrew from the match, which aroused great suspicion. Besides, sometimes the facts emerge that football or tennis players have made a bet through their acquaintances, relatives, friends. So, for example, in 2016 tennis player Constant Lestienne was disqualified. In 3 years he put more than 200 bets, although all these bets were made on those games in which he did not participate.

To sum it up

Sometimes there are such events, the result of which even the most successful players cannot foresee. These are matches in which the participants demonstrate unsportsmanlike behavior. These can be agreed games or matches in which one of the athletes bet on himself in the bookmaker's offices. Such cases in modern sports are not uncommon. Indeed, experienced players who often watch sports broadcasts are well aware of this. Besides, there is also a category of athletes who intentionally lose a game or some part of a match to make money on it in bookmakers. Therefore, betting on such games should be rather cautious, since any such fight becomes unpredictable. Newbies and inexperienced gamblers can make their list of those athletes who, it seems, deliberately lose their games to make money on bets at the bookmakers. This list can be compiled based on your observations or chat with other forecasters on thematic forums. You can also read our article about Famous Celebrity Gamblers. Gamble safely in the Bet Online Sportsbook. Good luck!

You can discover more about Bet Online Sportsbook here.

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