Chelsea FC VP Alan Spence in Court Over Alleged $1M Debt to Bookie David Solomon

Alan Spence, the Vice President of Premier League club Chelsea FC, is in court in London this week, defending claims he owes a bookmaker over $1 million in unpaid gambling debts.

Spence admits to gambling with David Solomon and racking up massive debts. The pair then reached an arrangement in which Spence agreed to place bets on Solomon’s behalf at the online gambling site Spreadex.

Spence’s defence has described him as a “compulsive gambler,” which made him the ideal whale, a high-stakes bettor who acts as a frontman to place bets on behalf of someone else.

The problem was that Spence did not actually place the bets as instructed. In court, he said, “I believed I was placing the bets when I wasn’t. I know that sounds crazy.”

Spence Caught in Web of Lies

The Racing Post reported that Spence admitted to building up debts of £621,000 ($830,000) in 2021 through betting with Solomon. He then lied to the bookie, claiming he could not repay due to financial difficulties.

Spence said his creditors were accepting a debt-reduction plan, and Solomon also agreed to reduce the sum he owed to £175,000. He admitted to fabricating meetings with creditors to make the lies more believable.

“I shouldn’t have done that because we had agreed to the compromise. It was foolish to do this. I didn’t need to do it, it was crazy,” he said in court.

He also lied about placing bets at Spreadex over three years, from 2019 to 2022. Initially, he attempted to cover up the fact that he was not actually making the wagers by paying any winnings from his own pocket. He appears to have devised this scheme as the first bets Solomon instructed him to make lost.

However, as the bets became profitable, he changed his strategy. He claims that rather than betting online, he met with another illegal bookie, only identified as George.

He says he met with George every day in the pub car park in Surrey, near London, and showed him WhatsApp messages from Solomon with the latest bets. But George then disappeared, owing Spence £250,000 in winnings from Solomon’s wagers.

Solomon’s lawyer, Duncan Heath, claims the story is a lie. He said in court, “The most convenient way for him to look at WhatsApp messages from Mr Solomon was to meet up in a car park behind a pub in your car? Wouldn’t it be easier to admit this is just a lie?”

Illegal Bookie Debts Should Be Voided, Says Spence

Solomon told the court that he laid bets for “friends and acquaintances.” Spence argues the debts should be voided as Solomon was acting as an illegal bookie or intermediary.

“You were operating a business by taking commissions, following ‘smart’ bets, getting money on for people at proper prices, and laying bets for people you thought were not good,” Spence’s lawyer Reuben Comiskey said. “These are the activities of a person carrying out a business to make a profit.”

In another case, UK courts ruled that an illegal bookie had to pay compensation for debts owed to a customer.

There is no suggestion that Solomon is facing charges over running an illegal bookmaking operation. However, the UK Gambling Commission has warned that anyone operating illegally will face consequences.

It stated, “Using mobile apps like WhatsApp does not make illegal gambling invisible or beyond our reach – we can evidence such activity is taking place, and we will use every power available to us to play our part in removing this unlawful activity from the British marketplace and to ensure those responsible are held to account for their actions.”

Pro Gamblers & Whales

Profitable gamblers are often banned from betting with licensed companies, leading them to employ frontmen and use unregulated platforms or illegal bookies. The practice, however, can become complicated. Professional gambler Tony Bloom is also facing a lawsuit over claims he owes profits from his betting syndicate.

Crypto betting site Rollbit also claims Bloom’s syndicate was placing bets at its platform, through a whale named James Hopkins. The site does not allow bets to be placed on behalf of anyone else, and as a result, it withheld $19.6 million of the $70 million in profits Hopkins generated from the wagers. This has led to a legal dispute between the parties.

Prediction markets now offer an alternative for high-stakes gamblers. Another one of Bloom’s alleged whales, George Cottrell, recently lost over $700,000 at Polymarket, betting against the US taking military action in Iran. Overall, his account remains in profit of over $3 million.

Cottrell, like Spence, has been described as a compulsive gambler while maintaining several high-profile connections, including serving as an aide to UK politician Nigel Farage. In addition to his role at Chelsea, Spence owns several racehorses and serves as the Vice President of the Racehorse Owners Association. The trial continues.