HUDDERSFIELD TOWN star Kian Harratt has been suspended for four months after placing 484 bets over a three year period.
He has also been slapped with a £3,200 fine for the rule breaches.
Kian Harratt has been banned for four monthsRex
The ban relates to a series of betting breaches over a three year period from June 2020 until June 2023.
As part of the FA hearing which decided on the length of the ban, Harratt admitted to betting on matches he was involved in.
In his statement, Harratt said: “I am also cognisant of the fact that some of the bets that I have placed are more problematic than others, in particular those involving my own team.
“While the vast majority of the bets I have placed on football do not involve my own team, I recognise the issues that placing bets
involving my own team can cause.”
Harratt explained to the FA that he began gambling when he opened an online betting account on his 18th birthday.
The striker initially limited his gambling to horse-racing but explained that this extended to football soon after.
He told the FA: “Unfortunately, as my betting history included in the FA Charge Letter shows, once I started to place bets on football, I found myself unable to stop, despite numerous attempts to do so.”
“I can now see that the number of bets that I placed directly corresponds with the amount of time that I spent on the pitch.
“I found myself continually trying to replicate the feeling of playing
regular first team football and when such opportunities were not forthcoming, my gambling activity increased in order to get an adrenaline rush or the same ‘buzz’ I got from playing.”
He went on to confirm that all the bets that he placed were in his own name, and he made no attempts to conceal his identity when gambling.
That’d despite Harratt admitting: “I readily accept that I received training and education sessions which included sections on gambling as an academy player and I was aware that the rules say that footballers cannot bet on football.”
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