English soccer player Ryan Bowman banned for placing over 6000 bets

English soccer player Ryan Bowman has been banned for three and a half years for serious breaches of the Football Association’s (FA) betting rules. 

The 33-year-old who most recently played for Cheltenham Town in the English Football League (EFL) was found to have placed 6397 bets over a period of eight years.

Bowman admitted the betting activity to the independent commission that heard the case.

He was alleged to have placed a bet from the substitutes’ bench on a fixture between Shrewsbury and MK Dons that was in-play, but this was denied. 

During his time at Exeter City, Ryan Bowman is said to have made around 2600 bets between December 2020 and July 2021, and then a further 3100 from August 2021 to July 2023, while he was at Shrewsbury Town.

Bowman placed eight bets against Shrewsbury, with three while he played the entirety of the game, and another six individual bets on himself to score during the matches.

The striker signed a one-year deal with Cheltenham Town last summer, but last featured for the club in a fixture on January 1 this year, and has now been released. 

He has received a ban backdated to March, which will apply until September 2028, and given his age, it will effectively end his career in senior football.

A statement from Cheltenham Town confirmed club officials “were aware that Ryan was under investigation by the FA when he signed for the Club at the start of the 2024/25 season, but the full extent of the offences was not known until October, when charges were brought under the FA’s betting regulations.

“Club officials supported Ryan through what has been a difficult time for him, and despite his departure from Cheltenham Town this summer, again we would like to place on record our thanks to him and wish him and his family all the best for the future.”

The commission outlined that Bowman’s extensive use of other people’s betting accounts was a serious aggravating feature, added it had “no doubt this was a further attempt (by Bowman) to hide his extensive football betting activity, which he knew at all material times, was against the rules”.

The independent commission’s report said, “this is a most serious case which includes a number of egregious examples of breaches of The FA Rules against betting,” underlining the harsh punishment meted out.

Gambling in soccer in the United Kingdom is a very tangled web with players expected to completely refrain from the activity, despite the vast sums that are pumped into the game from sponsorship of clubs and competitions. 

In a high-profile example, West Ham United’s Brazilian international Lucas Paqueta is currently awaiting his fate after another FA investigation, with the player sidelined due to betting charges.

The saga involves the Hammers’ former shirt sponsor, Betway, which has now been replaced with BOYLE Sports, despite an upcoming change for the 2026/27 season that will prohibit gambling logos on the front of shirts.

Image credit: @shrewsburytown/X

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