Online casinos are gaining in popularity every year, bringing players all over the world together.
Professional athletes, especially football players, are often addicted to gambling. Some of them even managed to succeed and make good money. So, who among the famous football players has won big sums at least once at an online casino?
Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United player and 2016 European Championship winner Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal likes and plays online gambling. A few years ago, he actively played poker in international tournaments. In doing so, Ronaldo was not inferior to many professional players. There is information that in one of the tournaments, Cristiano carried away the top prize – 30 thousand dollars.
Ronaldo
Ronaldo Luis Nazariu di Lima ended his career as a player in 2011. The footballer twice won World Cups for Brazil. Ronaldo managed to play for two top Spanish clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
A career in online casinos has also worked out well for the footballer. In 2015, Ronaldo participated in a poker tournament, where he managed to enter the top 30. The footballer's prize was about $42,000. But the Brazilian football veteran does not stop there and continues to play.
Aleksandr Bukharov
The once promising Russian footballer, Alexander Bukharov, also once won a solid sum of money. Bukharov ended his career as a player at Rubin in 2019.
The footballer's most striking achievement in the gambling environment was sixth place at the Pokerstars Sunday Million. A total of around eight thousand players took part. Alexander's winnings amounted to $48,720. The price of such a prize is 11 hours per game.
Francesco Totti
Totti is one of Italy's most famous footballers, who has devoted his entire career to one club, Roma. Francesco has had great success as a footballer. He won the World Cup in 2006, for example.
But Totti is known not only in the world of sport. Rumor has it that one night Totti won about $50,000 playing at the casino.
Gerard Piquet
Gerard Piqué has been with the Granada blue side uninterruptedly since 2008. The Barcelona footballer for many years played for the Spanish national team, in which he became world champion in 2010 and European champion in 2012.
But Pique's sphere of interest includes online casinos. Gerard Piquet's biggest gambling jackpot is €41k.
Andriy Shevchenko
This is one of the most famous Ukrainian footballers. During his career as a player Shevchenko played for Chelsea and Milan. Andriy has also proven himself as a good coach. He has been in charge of his home country's national team since 2016. The outstanding achievement in his coaching career was when the Ukraine national team reached the quarterfinals at the European Championship 2020, where they could not cope with the England national team.
For Andriy Shevchenko, poker is not just luck. The footballer has repeatedly stated in interviews that winning at gambling is possible with the right calculation. According to some reports, an intelligent approach to gambling at online casinos has brought Shevchenko around $60,000.
Wayne Rooney
Everton and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney was addicted to gambling even before it went online. Rooney now coaches English club Derby County.
Wayne has tried almost all kinds of games, from sports betting, to poker itself. In the press it is written that in the online casino Rooney once won about 50 thousand euros.
Neymar
This extraordinary and gifted Brazilian footballer plays for PSG. In 2017, the club gave €222 million for him. As a footballer, Neymar is incredibly inventive and skillful. He has Olympic gold (Rio, 2016) and Confederations Cup gold (2013) in his trophy collection for the national team.
Neymar is very fond of poker. In an interview, he revealed that he named his dog Poker. The footballer spends time at online casinos and was able to achieve a major success in 2016. The exact amount of his winnings is unknown, but it is believed that Neymar took in around €30,000.
Mario Balotelli
The career of the Italian national team player, Mario Balotelli, is in its final stages. During his time, Mario managed to play in such famous clubs as Manchester City, Liverpool and Milan.
Balotelli has always played in casinos, both real and virtual. The footballer's biggest online casino jackpot was 25 thousand euros.
Gianluigi Buffon
The impenetrable Italian goalkeeper has defended his homeland on the world stage for 21 years. Gianluigi Buffon has spent most of his career at Juventus. He now plays for Parma.
Buffon first appeared at online casinos in 2009 and got fairly involved in the game. The footballer himself attributes his love of online gambling to the fact that it helps him pass the time between physiotherapy sessions. Gianluigi is rumored to have won at least 35 thousand dollars in online poker.
Online casinos attract not only ordinary people, but also celebrities. A lot of football players and athletes in general gamble and win.
