The popular Cor Potcast has recorded a special this week about gambling in football, called ‘Free Money’. In this special edition of the podcast, (former) footballers Bart Vriends, Thomas Verhaar, and Maarten de Fockert discuss this with, among others, the VVCS, the players’ union for footballers.
On Friday, the latest episode of the popular podcast Cor Potcast was released online on Spotify. In the special ‘Free Money’ of almost forty minutes, the men behind the podcast, (former) footballers Bart Vriends, Thomas Verhaar, and Maarten de Fockert, pay attention to gambling in football.
The podcast kicks off with a story that in the past, many messages were exchanged between footballers with information about the lineups of youth matches, on which it was still possible to gamble at the time. In this way, they could use inside information to bet on high odds at bookmakers, who did not have this information.
Meanwhile, the gambling landscape in the Netherlands has changed considerably, and it is no longer possible to bet on these types of matches. However, the gentlemen say that there is still a lot of gambling in the football dressing rooms, because many footballers simply enjoy a gamble.
They speak with, among others, the VVCS, the players’ union for footballers, about gambling problems among footballers. They also look at the rules for players, because are they allowed to bet money on competitions in which they are active themselves? Especially for footballers who may be struggling with such problems, the VVCS has a special helpline.
The full broadcast of the Cor Potcast can be listened to here.
Gambling footballers
The fact that many footballers gamble is also evident from the reports that have come out in recent years. Earlier this week, Tom Beugelsdijk announced that he has started summary proceedings against Unibet, because he wants back € 100,000 that he lost to the provider before legalization in the Netherlands.
In the past two years, there has also been a lot of attention for the gambling scandal in Italian football. Dozens of players from Italian football had been guilty of illegal gambling on football. Sandro Tonali received a suspension of ten months, because the FA’s investigation revealed that Tonali had violated the gambling rules 50 times at Newcastle United.
