Caught: The two Italian national players Alessandro Florenzi and Sandro Tonali
Photo: imago/ImagePhoto/Matteo Gribaudi
Don’t forget Aldo Bet,” warned the ultras of AC Milan last week, holding up a banner with this inscription in the San Siro stadium. What at first glance seemed like a call for sports betting with the provider Aldo Bet, turned out to be a postmortem tribute to a once tough stopper with that name, who died in November at the age of 74. Aldo Bet became champions with AC Milan in 1979, playing alongside greats like Franco Baresi and Fabio Capello.
Nothing precise is known about his betting behavior, even if investigators knocked on his door in the course of the manipulation scandal in AC Milan’s championship year. “But they came to the wrong conclusion,” he emphasized in an interview with “Gazzetta dello Sport” a few years ago.
Investigators came to several conclusions this year regarding illegal gambling. Two suspects also wore the red and black uniforms of the Milan club. Sandro Tonali, who received a ten-month ban for betting, moved to Newcastle United in the Premier League in the summer and is currently not eligible to play there. Alessandro Florenzi, on the other hand, is still at AC Milan. He was also interviewed by investigators. But he is currently allowed to play. He was substituted on to great applause on the very day the fans were remembering the old hero Aldo Bet.
Unlike the banned Tonali, he only admitted to playing poker and blackjack on unlicensed platforms. This may result in a fine in a criminal justice process. However, the sports justice system only becomes active when someone has bet on their own sport, especially on their own team. Florenzi denies this, as does Italian international Nicolò Zaniolo, who works in England.
The fact that we are currently dealing with sports betting again and with players who gamble has to do with an investigation by the Turin anti-mafia public prosecutor’s office. “In our investigation, we originally assumed drug offenses and suspected money laundering. We came across the illegal platforms. Football professionals were also customers of these platforms,” Enrica Gabetta, coordinator of the anti-mafia pool, told “nd”. Prosecutors encountered hundreds of clients and millions of dollars in sales. A total of four football professionals are known to be betting illegally, including Zanioli, Tonali and Florenzi, as well as Nicolò Fagioli. All of them have already played for the Italian national team, Fagioli is under contract with series champions Juventus Turin.
They started gambling in Italy’s U21 team, of all places. At least that’s what Fagioli admitted to investigators. At the youth selection training camp, he and his friend Tonali discussed the best platforms for gaming. The coaching staff at the time didn’t want to know anything about it. “In my presence, the boys always behaved correctly and diligently,” said the then coach Paolo Nicolato in an interview with “nd”. “However, we coaches only spend relatively little time with the athletes. What happens in the private sphere is beyond our knowledge,” he puts it. The trainer believes that the main reason for the betting fever is the amount of free time that professional athletes have, which they waste betting on their smartphones due to a lack of other interests.
For gambling addiction experts, competitive athletes worldwide actually represent a particularly vulnerable risk group. “Members of sports clubs have a natural interest in sports, and sports betting is basically the number one topic. We already know that members of sports clubs place sports bets much more often than other people in the general population. There is also evidence that environmental factors are important drivers. If sports bets are placed among friends or in my own sports club, then as a young person I have easier access because that is the social norm,” says Tobias Hayer. He is a psychologist, heads the gambling research unit at the University of Bremen and has been working on the research topic of gambling addiction for more than two decades.
While around one to three percent of people in the normal population are at risk of becoming addicted to gambling, Hayer puts this at ten percent in sports clubs.
This is consistent with experiences in Italy: Paolo Jarre, currently the therapist of Juventus professional Fagioli, believes that around ten percent of professional athletes are addicted to gambling and betting in Italy too. An aggravating factor for gambling addiction, especially among younger people, is the rapid development of the sports betting market. “I call this betting from centimeter zero, comparable to sustainable consumption from kilometer zero. “The only difference is that you can access a betting platform directly with your smartphone and bet live during the game not only on the next goal, but also on corners, substitutions and yellow cards,” explains therapist Jarre.
The penchant for extra kicks also makes active athletes a particular risk group for gambling addiction. “What does it mean for the brain – keyword happiness hormones – when a professional soccer player scores the decisive goal in the 93rd minute and is cheered in the stadium and on television? If that doesn’t provide a kick, it’s understandable that these emotion-regulating and mood-enhancing elements are sought elsewhere, for example in gambling,” says Jarre’s Bremen colleague Hayer.
A big problem is that gambling addiction affects the cognitive abilities of those affected. «Gambling addicts succumb to the mistaken belief that they can be on the financially positive side in the long term through certain behaviors, strategies and systems. “That encourages you to continue playing,” warns Hayer. However, gambling addiction can hardly be recognized from the outside. “The most visible sign is the money, which is systematically disappearing,” says Jarre dryly. For football professionals who have contracts worth millions, it can take a while before those around them become aware of outflows of money.
The draconian punishments that the Italian sports justice system imposes on betting athletes are primarily due to the fact that athletes with gambling debts are more inclined to participate in match manipulation for so-called safe bets. This is the classic dynamic of recent betting scandals. At least in the case of the four Italian national soccer players, this is not the case, emphasizes Fagioli’s lawyer Luca Ferrari to “nd”. In fact, there is no evidence so far that any of the players had bet on their own team losing. But these are the usual patterns in betting fraud.
Therapy approaches for gambling addiction are primarily about helping addicts find other incentives. “It is important to have leisure activities outside of professional sports that fill you with passion,” says Fagioli therapist Jarre, outlining the strategy. He expects treatment to last months.
With a proportion of ten percent of people at risk of addiction in professional sports, this potentially opens up a considerable business area. However, there are currently only a few special addiction clinics for professional athletes. Former English professional footballer Tony Adams opened such a facility near London. He himself had alcohol problems. “We now have far more gambling addicts than alcohol addicts among our patients,” he observed.
In addition to therapy, prevention is also important. Betting market analyst Sportradar is currently developing an “Athlete Wellbeing Program”. “Athletes who take part will be informed about the possible effects of sports betting on their mental health. At the same time, we want to raise awareness of the signs of problematic betting behavior,” says Sportradar manager Andreas Krannich, explaining the approach.
In Italy, Juve professional Fagioli is to take part in educational seminars for younger athletes. “The players listen very differently to a peer who reports on their own experiences and traumatic experiences than to adults who give general warnings about risks,” says lawyer Ferrari. Both he and the psychologists Hayer and Jarre as well as young coach Nicolato emphasize that clubs and associations need to do much more to combat gambling addiction.
The question of how advertising by betting providers in the sports environment should be dealt with in the future remains unresolved. Professional sports are keen on money. Umberto Cairo, owner of the first division club FC Turin and also the sports media empire surrounding the “Gazzetta dello Sport” and the organizer of the Giro d’Italia, recently called for more income for sports from the betting business.
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