As professional footballers, players have the chance to explore and enjoy lots of interests and hobbies, especially in today’s football world. Because they train from morning to early afternoon and go home, they have a lot of time on their hands to try out a lot of things, and the fact that they have a lot of money to dispose of, entails that they can embrace a lot of other recreation activities, some of them involving casinos and gambling. In 2020, most people tend to play at casinos online and this includes footballers. If you’re looking out for the top sites, you might want to check out comparison sites like NCUK who list the best new online casino for UK players.
Some professional footballers work on the careers they’d like to take up once they’ve retired from the beautiful game by studying and practicing, others move to the golf course to enjoy some time at the game of finesse, while a few storm the casino halls. That many players enjoy games apart from football is not a new thing.Â
Stan Bowles of Queens Park Rangers enjoyed playing games at the casinos while he was actively playing football in the seventies, but with the arrival of the online casinos and its spread across the world, players can now enjoy their table and slot games online with no publicity. We have listed the four players that you might meet at the casinos the next time you visit.
Cristiano Ronaldo
This man that is known on the pitch with his brand name, CR7 is currently the most popular footballer in the world, albeit debatably. The man that goes home with an income that none of his peers lay hands on is no stranger to casinos. He has been spotted on several occasions in several locations enjoying the game of poker, with one of his poker stints in Melbourne making the news in a loud manner.
Because of the fact that he has a loud interest in the game, one of the online gaming brands has made him the face of their brand, and through this, the casino attracts many new players. Through his partnership with the gala casino, how casinos can lure in new players by presenting them with the chance to play games from the comfort of their sitting rooms is revealed.
Newbies are normally attracted to the casinos and their games by the welcome bonuses, because they make the online casinos easier to play than the brick and mortar casinos. Through the bonuses, the popularity of online gaming has exploded, and many players have eventually been co opted into becoming the face of many casino brands, including people like Rio Ferdinand, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Neymar.
James Maddison
The former Norwich City midfield kingpin is having a very good season at Leicester City at the moment, and this has even sparked speculations that Manchester United is interested in signing him in the summer. This 23 year old has also gained his first cap from England after moving to Leicester for a reported fee of £20m, though he might have received his English call up earlier, if not for an illness that kept him down. His first call up was in 2019, when the England national team faced the Czech Republic national team, but he did not make the squad because he was down with flu and had to leave the camp before the date for the game. While still suffering the flu, he paid one of the casinos at Leicester City a visit. As expected, this stirred some nerves, but reveals that he is very much in love with relaxing with casino games.
Mario Balotelli
At some point, Mario Balotelli was among the most controversial players in English football. The 29 years old became a favorite of the newspaper stands when he joined the Manchester City team that was coached by Roberto Mancini. His controversies ranged from sparking off fireworks outside the pitch to struggling to wear a bib. He was always a subject of news for the paparazzi.
In 2011, he made headlines due to his love for the casinos. The headline, though, was not a bad one. The news had it that he just won £25,000 in a casino in Manchester, and after the game, while he was going home; he met a homeless man at the door of the casino, and doled out £1,000 to him from the winning. This simply showed how benevolent the erratic football character could be. Even as he draws towards the last years of his career with Brescia in the Italian Serie a, his love for the casinos is still very pronounced.
Steve Watts
Many people may not know the name, Steve Watts, because he did not have a popular sports career. The player lined up for Lincoln City, Shrewsbury Town and Leyton Orient in England. One significant thing about him is that his first professional contract was picked after he won a newspaper competition while wearing the colors of a non-league team named Fisher Athletic. Well, at 43 years, many people may know him more with his stints at the casinos than what he did on the pitch of football. He is now a very renowned player of the poker game, winning up to $1m (£760,000) in his career. One odd thing is that at some point, he also managed the winner of the 2015 X Factor, Louisa Johnson. Isn’t that wonderful? Or is he a jack of all trades?
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