Former Soccer Star Dele Alli Allegedly Lost £150,000 Playing Late-Night Poker

Former England and Tottenham star Dele Alli is reportedly losing tens of thousands of pounds playing late-night high-stakes poker at the Victoria Casino in London.

The Daily Mail reported that Alli lost £150,000 over a few days. According to the Mail’s source, Alli regularly loses £25,000 a night,

Alli was once a rising star in English soccer and netted 18 goals for Tottenham Hotspur in his dominant 2016-17 season. The midfielder’s form faltered from 2018 onwards, however, with short, unsuccessful stints at Everton, Beşiktaş, and most recently Italian club Como. He’s currently a free agent.

At this peak, Alli was valued at roughly £50 million when he played for Tottenham in 2018. He received £150,000 per week at the time, but that number is drastically lower these days as he’s currently a free agent.

Alli Attracts Sharks: ‘The Dele is Open for Business’

The Daily Mail allegedly spoke to a high-stakes regular at the Victoria Casino. The unnamed player described Alli as a major catalyst for lucrative games that would run at the casino.

“As soon as he arrives at the casino, a message gets sent around saying: ‘The Dele is open for business’ – and there’s a rush to join the game that he joins because we know there’s easy money to be made,” the anonymous source told the Mail.

The unnamed poker player referred to Alli as a whale and said that the soccer star made a late-night appearance at the casino almost every night for a two-week period.

It’s especially troubling as Alli did a six-month stint in rehab over a sleeping pill addiction and mental health issues.

High-profile celebrities like Alli are often the spark that ignites major poker games around the world.

Tobey Maguire, a well-known actor in his own right, recruited fellow celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck to help attract even bigger fish to the infamous Viper Room games. Millions of dollars exchanged hands in those games, not to mention a large number of lawsuits.

In a very different situation, former NBA stars Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were used as bait for private poker games in a high-profile cheating scandal that involved the mob. The organizers of the game were finally indicted last year, and it serves as a strong reminder for high-stakes players to use caution when playing private games, particularly if they involve automatic-dealing machines.

In this case, it appears the only one who got burnt was Alli.

Alli Follows in Footsteps of Peers Neymar, Ronaldo and Piqué

Alli might be catching all the headlines for playing poker right now, but he’s certainly not the first soccer star to develop a keen interest in the game.

Gerard Piqué, Teddy Sheringham, Tony Cascarino, and Max Kruse are just a handful of the international footballers who play the game at a high level. Poker companies have also invested heavily in creating brand ambassador roles for soccer stars.

Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo both famously signed sponsorship deals with PokerStars. Ronaldo Nazário has also represented PokerStars in the past. 888poker briefly signed Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez for the 2014 World Cup (the company cut ties after Suárez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini).

While it’s hard to say who’s been the most successful at the poker tables (most of the action likely happens at the cash games, as Dele Alli can attest), you can point to Spanish defender Gerard Piqué as the most formidable at tournament play.

Here’s a look at the soccer pros all-time live tournament leaderboard, according to Hendon Mob:

Image Credit: Steffen Prößdorf/Creative Commons (License: CC BY-SA 4.0)