The Fifa Code of Ethics prohibits active participants in football from endorsing sports betting operators. How is it that Atlético de Madrid’s manager Diego Simeone is the current official ambassador of Betinia and Campobet?
By Philippe Auclair
One of the favourite marketing tools of sports betting operators, legal or not, is to use famous figures to endorse their brands. These figures can be musicians like Nicki Minaj, comedians like Chris Rock, porn stars like Eva Elfie and Maria Ogawa and influencers – like too many to mention.
It is even better, though, if the ambassador happens to be a “name” in sport, especially in football, though there is a hitch. Former stars can promote whoever they want, and do: Josimar’s database of ex-footballers turned gambling ambassadors (mostly for illegal operators) runs to well over a hundred names, from Dimitar Berbatov to Francesco Totti to Michael Owen and Eden Hazard; but current players and managers are bound by Fifa’s Code of Ethics and, as such, have to keep out of that lucrative game until they retire (*).
Or do they?
The case of Atlético de Madrid’s manager Diego Simeone suggests that, at least in practice, some of them don’t.
Code? What code?
On 6 January 2026, gaming company Soft2Bet, which was created in 2016 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Uri Poliavich and is now based in Malta and Cyprus, announced that the manager known as “Cholo” had become the official ambassador for two of its brands, Betinia and CAMPOBET, which both target the – legal – Danish and Swedish markets as well as, in the case of CAMPOBET, Mexico. However, Simeone is still very much active in football: his Atlético side is about to challenge Arsenal for a place in the final of the Champions League, the only trophy to have escaped the Argentinian coach in nearly fifteen successful years at the head of the Madridese club.
The press releases were predictably gushing. “Partnering with a football icon like Diego Simeone is a major milestone for Soft2Bet and its brands, CampoBet and Betinia,” exulted Alex Gitsik, CMO of Soft2Bet. “His leadership and dedication to excellence reflect the values we uphold across all our gaming platforms. Through this unique collaboration, we are excited to bring fans closer to the game they love, blending strategic gameplay with engaging gaming experiences.”
“Cholo” adopted the tone de rigueur as well, though what the “new format” he was referring to was was not immediately clear – perhaps some “new” type of player-platform interactivity? “The path to achieving your goal requires discipline, sacrifice, hard work, and trying to make the right decisions at all times“, he was quoted as saying. “With this new format, fans will be able to analyze every step they take based on different aspects and feel some of what I feel every game on the sidelines.”
Yet, as two sports lawyers intimately familiar with Fifa’s codes of conduct, statutes and regulations assured Josimar, Diego Simeone could not take on an ambassadorial role with a sports betting operator without being in breach of article 27 of the organisation’s Code of Ethics. He would therefore incur the risk of being “subject to an integrity investigation, which can lead to a fine of at least CHF 100,000 and a ban on taking part in any football related activity for a maximum of three years”. That Simeone has a “direct […] financial interest” in the activities of Betinia and CAMPOBET is not in doubt, as Soft2Bet pays him for the use of his name and image; and that all active managers must abide by the Code is also clear.
Last in a long line
Perhaps the lack of action – or reaction – from Fifa should not come as a surprise, as Diego Simeone is far from the first active manager to seemingly ignore the organisation’s official stance on the involvement of “participants in football” in the sports betting industry. Fifa has also grown much more conciliatory towards the gambling industry in recent years. The “not for profit” organisation now identifies revenue opportunities where it once saw one of the greatest perils the game had to face. Betano became the first official regional gambling partner of Fifa at the 2022 World Cup, a role reprised for the 2025 Fifa Club World Cup, while New Zealand lottery TAB was a sponsor of the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup. The federation of federations has since entered into a controversial relationship with fledgling (and still non-functional) prediction market platform Predictstreet, an asset ultimately majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family which Josimar has investigated in detail over the past few weeks.
Among the active managers who have tested Fifa’s Code of Ethics in the past are two prominent figures of England’s “Golden Generation”, Steven Gerrard, then-manager of Rangers in the Scottish Premier League, and Wayne Rooney, who was in charge of Derby County at the time. Unlike Simeone, who is at least dealing with a legal bookmaker, Gerrard and Rooney teamed up with two of the most infamous brands catering for the huge – illegal – Chinese market. Gerrard picked Yabo, a criminal operation which was dismantled by the Chinese authorities in 2020 and 2021. At the signing ceremony, the former Liverpool captain posed next to Dean Hawkes, an expat English male model who played the role of “CEO” for the group for a couple of years. Rooney did not choose his partner more wisely. The operator he promoted, Kaiyun, and for whom he shot an awkward promotional video outside a conference hall in Manchester obviously meant to evoke Old Trafford, is a “phoenix” brand of the same Yabo. Neither Gerrard nor Rooney were investigated by the FA or by Fifa.
The exception
This “live and let live” approach seems to have been adopted almost everywhere, by all federations and confederations, however egregious the ethical breaches may have been, and even when this laissez-faire policy was tested to its limits by the case of then-president of the Cameroonian FA and former Inter and Barcelona “legend” Samuel Eto’o. Eto’o became 1XBet’s ambassador in Cameroon in May 2023, replacing in that role another famous figure of African football, Rigobert Song, Cameroon’s national team manager at the time. The FECAFOOT boss promptly set out to promote the operator (which did not hold a licence in Cameroon) on social media, promising bonuses to gamblers who would use his personal code (*). He also signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with the platform on behalf of his federation two months later. Eto’o may have been emboldened by the fact that his confederation, CAF, had entered into a similar partnership with the Russian-Cypriot platform for its major competitions in 2018, which Josimar reported on in detail after having accessed the original contract.
This breach of the CAF and Fifa code of ethics earned “Sam” a $200,000 fine from the confederation’s disciplinary committee for “ violating principles of ethics and integrity”. He subsequently managed to have this sanction overturned on appeal on a technicality, as it was ruled it should have been imposed by CAF’s Ethics Committee, not its Disciplinary Jury. So he too, like everyone else before him, and like Diego Simeone so far, escaped scot-free, as Fifa chose not to intervene despite the overwhelming evidence against the FECAFOOT president.
Don’t explain, don’t complain
Josimar contacted Fifa and its Ethics Committee on two separate occasions to obtain confirmation that an active manager who is involved in an ambassadorial role with a sports betting company – as Diego Simeone is – would be liable for investigation and, if found guilty, punishment.
Neither the Fifa press office nor the Secretary of the Investigative Chamber of the Ethics Committee responded to our enquiries.
Atlético de Madrid and Diego Simeone’s PR team also failed to reply to our requests for comment and clarification.
(*)The very few who did endorse sportsbooks when they were still playing, like Everton’s Yerry Mina and Colo-Colo’s Arturo Vidal, did not stay in the game for long, though Fifa did not intervene in either case.
(*) It is customary for “ambassadors” to be paid a cut of the losses incurred by gamblers who have used their personal promotional “bonus” codes.
Josimar uses “illegal sports betting” as defined by article 3 of the Macolin Convention: “any sports betting activity whose type or operator is not permitted under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located”.
