Eden Hazard and the dark side of online betting
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17 Mar 2026 •
Reading time: 3 minutes
The former captain of the Red Devils, Eden Hazard, now finds himself at the centre of a controversy over his partnership with Stake. But this is not his first controversial partnership.
A partnership that has caused a storm
When Eden Hazard’s name appeared alongside the betting platform Stake.com, few could have imagined the scale of the reaction that would follow. After all, he has not been playing for nearly two and a half years, which places him outside the direct scope of FIFA’s strict rules on sports betting. Other figures in world football, such as Dimitar Berbatov, Francesco Totti and Ronaldinho, have already lent their image to similar operators without causing comparable controversy.
Yet, within a few days, the media were reporting the risk of legal action, whilst the Belgian Gaming Commission announced the opening of an investigation.
It is not so much the association with a betting site that is the issue, but rather the identity of Stake.com. The operator has a dubious reputation in many jurisdictions. In Europe, and particularly in Belgium, Stake appears on regulators’ blacklists. Despite this, the platform continues to attract users from around the world by circumventing restrictions. Tutorials are circulating online explaining to punters how to use VPNs to access the site from countries where it is banned.
Stake’s image has also been bolstered by its visibility in professional football. Its presence on the shirt of English club Everton FC may have suggested legitimacy in the UK market. In reality, however, the operator has not held a licence there since February 2025. An investigation was launched by the local regulator following an advertising campaign deemed offensive, involving students barely of legal age. In the United States, the situation is even more critical. Stake is completely illegal there, but is said to have set up a mirror site designed to circumvent the regulations in force. A practice that has now led to legal proceedings against the company.
The story doesn’t end there. The co-founder of Stake, a young Australian billionaire, is also behind the streaming platform Kick. The platform has found itself in the spotlight for broadcasting particularly shocking content live, including the death of an influencer.
Past incidents swept under the carpet
This is not the first time the former Belgian international has been linked to controversial operators.
In 2020, whilst he was still a professional player, he became an ambassador for Dragon Casino, another illegal platform. At the time, the news went almost unnoticed as communication surrounding this partnership remained extremely low-key and targeted at an Asian audience.
A few years later, in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, a new collaboration emerged with KOK Sports. This time, Hazard appeared in a promotional video aimed at Chinese customers, delivering a celebratory message to them. But he was not alone. Other key figures from the Red Devils, such as Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne, also took part in this campaign, as it formed part of a regional partnership directly involving the Belgian Football Association.
This partnership has never been officially publicised, perhaps because KOK Sports is linked to a criminal network dismantled in China in the early 2020s.
Individual responsibility called into question
The situation raises a delicate question: is Eden Hazard currently being treated more harshly than other figures in the world of football? His ‘mistake’, according to some observers, is said to be having publicly displayed his partnership with Stake, whereas other partnerships have remained behind the scenes. In the age of social media and global influence, every partnership involves not only an image, but also a form of credibility.
Whilst the investigation in Belgium has yet to determine the exact responsibilities, one thing is already certain: this controversy could mark a turning point in the way partnerships between sportspeople and gambling operators are perceived.