According to local reports, the Belgian Gambling Commission (Kansspelcommissie) has opened an investigation into Eden Hazard for promoting Stake on his social media accounts.
Hazard is a former professional footballer who has played for Chelsea, Real Madrid, Lille and the Belgian national team.
On 12 March, Hazard posted on his Instagram page that he had signed an ambassadorship deal with Stake, an online sports betting and casino site that is illegal in Belgium and many other European countries.
While earlier screenshots show that Hazard had written “Global Ambassador @stake” in his Instagram bio, this has since been changed to simply “Ambassador @stake” alongside his exclusive referral code.
Hazard has also written “Unavailable in ESP & BE”, which presumably refers to the Stake platform.
He also uploaded a video to his grid that shows him wearing a football jersey with Stake branding, which has been pinned and saved as a highlight, making it the first thing fans see when visiting the profile.
Stefaan Savenberg, Gaming Commission spokesperson, said: "We are going to investigate to what extent that advertising is aimed at people in Belgium, because that is of course prohibited.
"Mr. Hazard has many Belgian followers on his Instagram page. So research will have to show whether the intention is to encourage Belgians to play on that illegal website."
Hazard has over 27 million followers on Instagram, 21 million on Facebook and 6.2 million on Twitter (X).
The Belgian Gambling Commission has explained that it will warn Hazard about the gambling infringement before beginning any potential sanctions.
A fine for breaking the Gambling Act in this way in Belgium can exceed €700,000.
Recently, land-based casinos in Belgium came together to support a bill that would reinstate the deductibility of the regional gambling tax for corporate income tax purposes.
At the peak of his career, Hazard moved to Real Madrid in a €150m transfer deal, which was one of the highest transfers ever at the time
