An English footballer was fined £50,000 – all of his winnings over a ten-year gambling career.
James Byrne was slapped with the biggest FA fine in non-league history after admitting to placing a total of 992 bets on football matches from the start of 2015 to the end of 2024.
Byrne amassed winnings of almost £50,000 over the years and was ordered to pay a penalty equivalent to his earnings, the largest ever imposed on a player in Step 4 of the English non-league pyramid system.
To put this into perspective, two of the highest profile Premier League gambling violations recently saw former Brentford striker Ivan Toney fined £50,000 and Newcastle United defender Kieran Trippier fined £70,000.
The £48,000 fine for Portishead Town’s 29-year-old midfielder is equal to around 500 times his weekly pay for playing in the Southern League Division One South.
Byrne, a well-known name across Step 4 teams across Bristol and Somerset after being let go from Exeter City’s academy as a youngster, is a maths and data whizz with a master’s degree from the University of Bristol.
He told the FA he works as a sports data consultant and semi-professional footballer. It didn’t take Byrne long to realise his understanding and use of maths and data in lower league football was sharper than that of the bookmakers.
Byrne admitted bookmakers would often close his accounts as he kept winning and in order to keep fresh ones open as long as possible, placed ‘muggy’ bets he knew were unlikely to win to try and throw them off the scent.
He joined Portishead earlier this year, who were recently promoted. FA regulations forbid footballers from placing bets on football within the United Kingdom, even if wagers don’t involve their own team or division.
Those regulations cover every player from the Premier League down to Step 4, which is four tiers below clubs in League Two.
During Byrne’s spell at Yate Town last season the FA launched an investigation and he was fully cooperative with their enquiries, submitting evidence to the written disciplinary hearing.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
