Despite 38 U.S. states offering legal sports betting, Charles Barkley needs a side bookie to keep up with his high-stakes gambling.
Key Takeaways
- The NBA analyst has a long history of gambling.
- Barkley lost a bet on the Toronto Maple Leafs to win Game 7 vs. the Florida Panthers.
The TNT basketball analyst – who often makes FanDuel parlay picks on broadcasts – said on Thursday night that the legal sportsbook won’t take the kind of action he prefers.
“FanDuel only lets me bet so much, so I got to have a bookie on the side,” Barkley said during an interview on TruTV’s alternate broadcast of Game 2 between the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes.
Barkley, a huge hockey supporter and noted fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, told host Paul Bissonnette and comedian Will Arnett that he placed a wager on the Maple Leafs to win Game 7 of their series with the Florida Panthers, who easily routed Toronto 6-1 last Sunday.
Charles Barkley's gambling is apparently too much for FanDuel to contain.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 23, 2025
"FanDuel only lets me bet so much so I gotta have a bookie on the side." pic.twitter.com/FTLLpX2odG
Not a lock
That loss eliminated a Maple Leafs team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and has a long history of losing Game 7s.
“I thought when they got back to Toronto for Game 7, (a Maple Leafs win) is a lock,” Barkley said on the broadcast. “That’s what I told my bookie. To see them lose like that, it was demoralizing as a fan.”
When he mentioned saying that to his bookie, Bissonnette and Arnett asked each other if they had one and joked that maybe they needed to “go halves on a bookie.” That’s when Barkley revealed that he wasn’t able to put down the wager he desired with FanDuel.
History of betting
Barkley has a long-chronicled betting habit, and he’s estimated that he’s lost more than $25 million gambling. The TV personality and NBA legend admitted that he quit placing sports bets and playing at casinos for two years. Barkley said there was a time when he couldn’t be happy just winning or losing $300,000 and needed to push it to $1 million during a weekend.
The "Inside the NBA" analyst also went on an 0-21 streak during a FanDuel-sponsored segment in which Barkley makes same-game parlay picks. He ended the streak on the last day of the regular season, connecting on an SGP he gave out during the broadcast with odds of +560.
Charles Barkley finally hit on a parlay and celebrated with a dance. pic.twitter.com/4zWkKWkgwd
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 11, 2025
