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Unusual Betting On 66/1 Bet Started Investigation Into Daniel Sturridge

Unusual Betting On 66/1 Bet Started Investigation Into Daniel Sturridge

The Liverpool striker has been charged by the Football Association with misconduct for alleged breaches of its betting rules.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Daniel Sturridge has been charged by the FA for breaching its rules on gambling on football games. The charge relates to one 66/1 odds bet from January and the amount of people who backed it.

Betting on football matches, responsibly, can be a lot of fun for the average, over 18 (think I've got both legal requirements in there), football fan on any given weekend. Suddenly turning games you don't care about into the most important moment of your Saturday.

Footballers aren't allowed to bet on football, whether it's to do with them or not, it's why Joey Barton was banned from the sport for 18 months, admittedly there's lots of other Barton bans that have no connection with gambling.

Yesterday the FA charged Daniel Sturridge for breaching the rules on gambling "specifically in relation to Rule E8(1)(a)(ii) and Rule E8(1)(b)," which relate to betting directly or indirectly on football and providing information for someone else to bet.

The FA didn't say what the charge was relating to but did say that the incident had taken place in January of this year, when Sturridge moved to West Brom on loan. Now it seems that transfer is the source of the issue.

According to the Liverpool Echo on January 28th bookies received a 'flurry' of bets for the former Chelsea forward to join West Brom on loan when the odds were 66/1.

Sturridge's time at West Brom wasn't a success. Image: PA Images
Sturridge's time at West Brom wasn't a success. Image: PA Images

At the time it seemed clear that the 29 year old was going to leave Anfield, at least temporarily, and Inter were favourites to secure his services.

The Baggies were way out on the odds but the amount of bets that came in forced bookies to lower the odds from 66/1 to 5/2 in the just 24 hours.

Just a day later Sturridge signed on loan with the Midlands side until the end of the season.

Sturridge is back at Liverpool this season and has scored twice in seven appearances. Image: PA Images
Sturridge is back at Liverpool this season and has scored twice in seven appearances. Image: PA Images

Yesterday a Liverpool spokesperson spoke on the charges saying, "Daniel has given his full and unequivocal cooperation throughout this process and has assured the club he will continue to do so.

"Daniel has also stated categorically that he has never gambled on football." Sturridge would not have needed to have bet on football himself to have broken the rules.

The player has until 6pm next Tuesday to respond to the charges.

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Topics: Liverpool, Football News, Daniel Sturridge, Premier League, West Brom, Transfer news