Dominic Matteo, Ex-Premier League Soccer Star, Reveals He Once Owed £1M in Gambling Debts

Ex-Liverpool FC, Leeds United, and Scotland national team soccer star Dominic Matteo (pictured) opened up this week about the gambling problem that nearly ruined his career. 

The 50-year-old spent eight years as a versatile midfielder at Liverpool in the English Premier League from 1992 to 2000. He then played for Leeds United for four years, including a European Champions League semifinal goal. He finished his career at English clubs Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City, where he retired in 2009.

In recent years, he has spoken openly about the gambling and drinking problems that blighted the later stages of his soccer career, and nearly forced him into early retirement. At one stage, he owed £1 million in gambling debts. In 2015, he declared bankruptcy, just six years after retiring from the professional game.

Matteo recently announced he will be embarking on a speaking tour with gambling harm consultant firm EPIC Global Solutions. Matteo will talk to team members at a wide range of soccer and rugby facilities, including Premier League teams, youth academies, and coaching schools, where he will discuss avoiding the temptations of being a young, rich, and famous professional athlete.

“When you’re betting after a few beers as well, it makes it even worse,” Matteo said in his recent autobiography. 

“To then have the bookies chasing you for £500,000, you’re thinking, ‘S**t, I’ve got to pay that back without the family knowing’.

The Gambling

Matteo’s gambling started at a young age, before even starting his soccer career.

“Most footballers have an ­addictive personality, and I grew up in ­Southport, where I would bet a few pence on the slot machines at the fairground,” he revealed. 

“Then, becoming a professional footballer, we’d have card schools on the bus back from away games and it felt like everyone was betting on the horses.”

Matteo says his habit spiraled after he left Leeds United at age 30. In the latter stages of his career, he wasn’t on the same level of contract as he had been at Liverpool, and he had made a series of poor business investments. 

During that time, he also bought several race horses, and continued betting big. He recalls placing one £200,000 wager that won, and then gambling all the profits away within months. 

“The more you earn as a footballer, the more you bet. Then you’ve got problems when you finish playing and aren’t earning that big money, but still betting heavily,” he said. 

“That’s when the problems at home began, and that was the tipping point for me – when I started to affect the ­people around me.”

The Recovery 

Matteo no longer gambles, and has moved into soccer analysis and punditry for various British TV outlets. 

He credits his long-time wife, Jessica, for sticking by him during his hard times. That included through his gambling problems, his bankruptcy, and a brain cancer scare that forced him into emergency surgery in 2019. 

“My missus has been my rock and we’ve had to ­become a team again – and I don’t think we were for that period when I was gambling. Now I’m in a good place with my wife and my three kids,” he said. 

Now fully recovered, Matteo will be joining EPIC Global Solutions as an ambassador. The UK-based gambling harm consultancy company works with sports betting operators and regulators, as well as recovering and former problem gamblers and a wide range of other stakeholders in the business. 

“When EPIC approached me about telling my story, I broke down, because it’s such an emotive topic. I’m looking forward to getting on a stage and telling my story,” he said. 

“Hopefully I can help people get to the root of their problem before they hit the point I got to. That’s the key, and it doesn’t matter whether you bet £100 or £100,000 a week – I’m happy to talk to anyone if it helps them.”