Counter-Strike used as evidence in Lucas Paquetá bet-fixing trial

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 04/09/2025

The English Football Association (FA) used texts from a Counter-Strike-themed group chat to accuse Lucas Paquetá of spot-fixing.

The West Ham midfielder was accused of intentionally getting yellow cards in four different Premier League matches to rig bets.

The FA alleged that 253 separate bettors put money on Paqueta being booked in at least one of those games, for a total profit of approximately £167k.

A 12-week court hearing threatened a lifetime ban for Paquetá, but an independent Regulatory Commission cleared him of any wrongdoing.

The 314-page report revealed that the FA backed up its now-proven weak statistical evidence with deleted text messages from Paquetá.

While the FA mostly failed to find any betting talk amongst these deleted messages, a WhatsApp group chat for playing Counter-Strike did intrigue investigators.

A friend, saved as Lucas Paquetá Gaming, said Paquetá would get booked in a certain match and he did.

This was then posted into an online gaming group of people who all played Counter-Strike together.

It was then joked in the group that Paquetá would pick up a third yellow card to be suspended and free to join their gaming session.

However, the Commission accepted the argument of Paquetá’s team that this was an innocent joke.

Otherwise, the FA statistics failed to prove that the yellow cards were out of character for the Premier League footballer.

Especially after his former manager, David Moyes, stated this was part of the midfielder’s usual aggressive playstyle.

Of the 253 bettors, only five were judged to have a “real relationship” with Paquetá.

One of them bet on yellow cards for all four of the highlighted matches, including a £115 stake.

However, it was revealed they also bet £1000 on the corners market for a match not involving Paquetá just two days prior.

Famous people who play Counter-Strike

With the rising popularity of esports and its competitive nature, it’s no surprise that pro athletes enjoy the games.

American tennis pro and Wimbledon semi-finalist Taylor Fritz is an accomplished League of Legends player.

And it turns out that Paquetá isn’t the only footballer who likes playing Counter-Strike.

His fellow countryman Neymar is a huge fan of the FPS and is in partnership with Brazilian esports organisation FURIA.

Neymar might play more Counter-Strike now that he is one of the biggest footballers missing from EA FC 26.

New Nottingham Forest signing Oleksandr Zinchenko also plays CS2 and owns an esports team, Passion UA.

Superman and Witcher actor Henry Cavill is also known to have over 2,600 hours on CS2.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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