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Wayne Rooney, one of England’s finest Football heroes has collaborated with 32Red to present its ‘Stay In Control’ series, adding to their ongoing commitment to responsible gambling and education.
Rooney Admits To Past Gambling Problems
Rooney, who makes his comeback to English football after a new signing with Derby County has himself fallen under the spell of problem gambling during his early years playing professional football for Manchester United.Epic Risk Management partner, Scott Davis is seen speaking to Rooney on how he became involved with gambling, after the former professional footballer was himself a serious gambling addict during his career. The two discuss the impact gambling addiction can have on them as players and also why it became a problem in the first place.Rooney said,“ I think it’s important that players understand the responsibility of the money they are earning because they’re earning a lot of money, there is a responsibility for us as older players who’ve been through that experience to help them and guide them on that, whether it’s gambling, whether it’s how to look after money, I think it’s important they take that information from whoever is willing to help them.“
Boredom
Rooney went on to say, that during the early days of his career playing for Manchester United, when playing away games they would often stay over night in a hotel room. If he was away playing for England it could be as long as ten days, boredom sets in and before you know it you are dabbling with gambling.Rooney admits at first he did see some good returns on his bets and naively thought it was an easy way to make money. He hadn’t any need to go in to a bookies as his betting was done via his phone. This in itself made gambling seem easy, as all he saw was numbers, it wasn’t like playing with real money until he started to lose quite a bit of money.CEO of Epic Risk Management Paul Buck said,“ The video emphasises the importance of ‘impactful’ and effective education to elite sportspeople and how programmes like EFL Sky Betting and Gaming Epic Risk Management 5 year education programme can have a positive effect on players, clubs, sports and the wider community.”Wayne Rooney makes his comeback to English football with Derby County who are sponsored by 32Red, as the Rams take on Barnsley at Pride Park tonight.https://youtu.be/vbFpWOcAGDk