Emi Martinez’s FA Investigation
Reports emerged this past week that Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez is under FA investigation over an alleged breach of betting advertising rules, following his role as brand ambassador for Argentine betting company bplay since June 2024.
Before the speculation takes hold, it’s worth establishing what this investigation actually involves – and what it doesn’t.
Journalist Guillem Balague, who obviously has closer connections to the club than most, has today provided the most useful clarity on the situation.
Let me tell you the latest on Emi Martínez and the FA investigation over alleged breaches of betting advertising rules.
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) March 10, 2026
The background: he has been an ambassador since 2024 for the Argentine betting company bplay. His campaigns with them have focused on responsible gambling —… pic.twitter.com/gjrHamGkp0
The distinction Balague draws is significant. Martinez’s work with bplay has centred specifically on responsible gambling messaging, with the direction of discouraging betting among young people and warning against illegal, unregulated platforms. His position, which his lawyers will now put to the FA, is that he has never endorsed betting on football itself.
The Rules
The FA’s position is more technical than that defence implies. Their regulations prohibit players from personally promoting any betting company that takes wagers on competitions they participate in or could influence. The issue isn’t whether Martinez explicitly told anyone to bet on a Villa game. It’s that bplay carries odds on the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League. That association alone is enough to open a review under the current rules.
A bplay campaign in 2025 drew particular attention in which Martinez swapped roles with his brother Alejandro, a professional motorsport driver, each taking on the other’s discipline – Martinez behind the wheel, while his brother was between the posts. bplay presented it as a celebration of sport. Whether the FA considers the football-adjacent framing sufficient to constitute a breach is precisely what the investigation will determine.
Context is King
Context is relevant here. Cases of this nature have historically been resolved through fines rather than bans, particularly where intent is disputed and the player’s legal team can demonstrate the campaigns were not straightforwardly promoting gambling. Martinez’s situation is complicated by the responsible gambling framing, which his lawyers will lean on heavily, as opposed to the 2019 case of former Everton player Yerry Mina, who received a £10,000 fine for a more straight-up endorsement of a Columbia betting company.
Gambling involvement in football by default creates grey areas, a case in point being Gambleaware’s sponsorship of The Football Supporters’ Association. While Gambleaware is supposedly an independent charity to educate and support gambling-led harms, in reality it is an enterprise that is funded yearly by millions of pounds of donations from betting companies.
In the case of Martinez, for now, as Balague highlights, this is an investigation. Not a charge. Until the FA concludes its review, everything else is conjecture.
Martinez and Villa have not commented publicly.
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