Non-League Footballer Receives Highest Ever Fine For Illegal Betting

A new record has been set for the highest ever fine received by a non-league football player.

James Byrne, a semi-professional midfielder in the tier-eight club Portishead, has been fined £48,388 ($65,010) for illegal betting.

An investigation by the English FA has revealed that Byrne had been betting and breaking the FA guidelines, which prohibit any Step 4 footballer from making bets on football in their country, regardless of whether they are affiliated or not.

Over the ten years Byrne had spent making bets, he had placed an approximate of 992 bets.

Byrne created his own successful method for football by utilizing his Master’s degree from the University of Bristol and his occupation as a sports data consultant, and using them, he won around £50,000.

After having been informed that Byrne, even with a possible payment plan he would likely have to play for at least another ten more years, he shared his hopes of being able to play until he is forty.

For The Fun Of It

Byrne admitted he knew that if he had moved into a tier-nine club, his football bets wouldn’t have been illegal; however, he also shared that he wished to play at the highest level possible.

Byrne has shared that he simply wished to test out his prediction method and had subsequently become dependent.

Since the report was released, he has declared that he has decided to stop betting, calling it “the final nail in the coffin”.

It has been stated that Byrne has fully cooperated while being questioned.

Byrne has explained that bookies would often remove his accounts whenever they notice him winning too much and that he had to occasionally make losing bets to throw them off.

Similar Mistakes

Other footballers have been caught gambling before, some having received heavier sentences than just paying fines.

Ivan Toney is one such example; he received an 8-month ban as well as a £50,000 fine after admitting to 232 betting offenses.

Recently, another UK footballer, former Shrewsbury striker Ryan Bowman, received a three-and-a-half-year-long suspension for placing over 6,000 soccer bets by using other people’s accounts.

Defender Lewis Macari had received a suspension for three months after he admitted to placing over 300 bets across three years.