The Uruguay star is facing — hopefully — a tremendous penalty from FIFA after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during Tuesday’s 1-0 win — that fact many of us know. But the most bizarre tidbit surrounding this entire controversy — aside from the fact this is Suarez’s THIRD time biting another player — is that people actually made money off the incident.
According to USA Today, 167 people scored money after placing a prop bet before the Italy-Uruguay match that predicted Suarez would bite someone. The report says, one Norwegian took home $3,300.
More than 150 people across Europe put money down that he would do it again during the World Cup, and raked in winnings 175-fold, a Swedish gambling company said on Wednesday…
…In Sweden, Mats Johansson posted his betting ticket on Twitter and thanked Suarez for the 1,750 kronor ($260) he got after putting up 10 Swedish kronor.
The company received bets on a Suarez bite amounting to “six figures in Norwegian kroner,” Mellqvist told The Associated Press. “We have people from all of Europe playing but mainly in Scandinavia.”
Italy has plenty of reasons to be upset considering Suarez wasn’t punished during the game, even after Chiellini showed the bite marks on his shoulder to referees. A red card following the assault might have saved Italy the 1-0 loss, a loss which booted Italy from the World Cup.
Related: World Cup 2014: Luis Suarez Taunts England Fans Following World Cup Defeat
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.
Photo Credit: Getty
