A non-league footballer has been slapped with a hefty fine usually reserved for Premier League stars, after confessing to placing nearly a thousand bets on football matches throughout his decade-long career.

James Byrne, who proved adept at outsmarting the bookies, amassed almost £50,000 in winnings over the years and has now been ordered to pay a fine equivalent to his earnings.

The staggering fine of £48,388.66 is thought to be the largest ever imposed on a player in Step 4 of the English non-league pyramid system, rivalling those handed out in high-profile cases involving footballers caught gambling, such as England internationals Ivan Toney and Kieran Trippier.

However, while a fine in the tens of thousands may represent less than a week’s wages for many Premier League stars, the £48,000 penalty for Portishead Town’s 29-year-old midfielder equates to roughly 500 times his weekly pay for playing in the Southern League Division One South.

Upon learning that Byrne had won and spent the £48,000 over the ten years as he raked it in, the FA have proposed the option of a payment plan. If every penny he earns from playing football goes towards paying the fine, he’d need to continue playing at that level for another decade.

The FA has discovered that Byrne, a former player for various Step 4 teams across Bristol and Somerset after being let go from Exeter City’s academy, is a maths and data enthusiast with a master’s degree from the University of Bristol. He informed the FA that he works as a sports data consultant and semi-professional footballer, and had realised his understanding and use of maths and data in lower league football surpassed that of the bookmakers.

From the start of 2015 to the end of 2024, he placed a total of 992 bets on football matches.

His success was such that he ended up nearly £50,000 ahead of the bookies over the years, and he told the FA that often, the betting companies would close his account because he kept winning. He would open new accounts, and even place bets he knew were unlikely to win, just to give the impression that he wasn’t a sports data genius who was fleecing the bookies.

After leaving Exeter, Byrne signed for Bridgwater Town, and since then has had a consistent career in the Southern League and at that level, playing for Paulton Rovers, Mangotsfield Town in Bristol, Larkhall Athletic in Bath and in 2023 was at Yate Town.

In August this year, he signed for Portishead Town, who have recently been promoted to the Southern League Division One South – which is at Step 4 of the non-league pyramid.

FA regulations forbid footballers from placing bets on football within this country – even when the wagers don’t concern their own team or division.

The FA regulations cover every player from the Premier League down to Step 4, which sits four tiers beneath clubs like Bristol Rovers in League Two of the Football League.

Had Byrne dropped down a division to join a team at a lower tier, his gambling wouldn’t have violated FA regulations.

During his time at Yate Town last season, the FA launched an investigation into him, and he fully assisted with the enquiry, submitting evidence to the written disciplinary hearing.