Stephen Bunting has brand deals questioned after discussing gambling struggles

PDC star Stephen Bunting has come under fire for signing brand deals with prize draw firms following a recent interview in which he discussed his struggles with gambling. 

The darts ace, currently ranked number 10 in the world, opened up to The Guardian about how he found himself in £90,000 worth of debt due to his betting activities.

“It was crazy. I was playing these online fruit machines and obviously you don’t realise what you’re doing,” he said.

“It’s only £1 a spin – but there were a lot of £1 spins. When [his partner] Keila received the bank statement I thought: ‘Oh no!’ But I didn’t realise how bad it was until she actually showed me. I was devastated. I’ve never, ever done that again.

“I was on the internet and looking in job centres. I could work in retail or go and work back at the council. I couldn’t cope any more.”

The 10-time PDC title winner, who notably won his first and only major to date when he triumphed in The Masters in 2024, spoke further on his hardships in his new book, Bulletproof, admitting he was “hiding his gambling from everyone”. 

Bunting confessed that he had begun to suffer from depression during a barren run of form and gambling offered “a release”. 

He admitted: “It was a compulsion. I couldn’t help myself.

“Nowadays, thankfully, it’s all under control. I’ll have a flutter on the horses now and then, but it’s a treat – not a compulsion.

“Gambling was a disease reflective of my own mental state. My gambling got so bad that I was still paying off the debts years later.”

Bunting’s prize draw deals irk fans

However, these comments have not gone down too well with many onlookers on social media. 

Bunting returned to the PDC Premier League in 2025 after a 2024 season which saw him pick up his maiden major and gain serious fan-favouritism.

With this rise up both the rankings and popularity ladders came brand deals, and Bunting signed a deal in February 2025 for prize draw firm Stealth Competitions to become a new brand partner “for the Premier League and beyond”.

Stealth Competitions no longer appears on the front of Bunting’s shirt, but it did as recently as the 2026 World Darts Championship in December.

He now has Diamond Draws Competitions as a brand partner, having announced a deal in January which included the promotion of a discount code, with that company now on his match shirts.

Bunting has also sported the logos of Betfred, BetMGM, bet365 and Paddy Power this year on his shirt, though admittedly these have been for competition title sponsorship reasons. 

However, his involvement with prize draw firms has come under fire, particularly given his past experiences with gambling. 

Prize draw operators are not legally classed as gambling in the UK, though they are only open to residents in the UK aged 18 years or over.

A total of 189 operators have recently signed the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Voluntary Code of Conduct for Prize Draw Operators as gambling harm prevention charities become more concerned that players are using prize draw sites in exactly the same way they would use traditional gambling.

Parallels from this incident can be drawn to a recent development which saw Everton FC player Martin Sherif charged for breaching the Football Association’s (FA) betting rules. 

The striker is alleged to have placed 61 bets on football matches between 20 November 2024 and 12 February 2026. 

Throughout this entire period, his club had a front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with illegal gambling operator Stake. Should Sherif return this season and play for Everton, he will almost definitely still be sporting the Stake logo, given Everton still have a shirt sleeve deal with the operator. 

It comes as the relationship between sport and gambling continues to throw up cases of hypocrisy, and regulators keep a more watchful eye over the ethics of deals as a whole.

Source link