Ninety minutes is enough time for Nicklas Bendtner to score a hat-trick. At a London casino in the summer of 2011, it was enough time for him to go £400,000 down.
Bendtner was 23 and still an Arsenal player. By his own account, he turned up at his favorite casino around three in the morning, drunk enough to think better of sitting down to play cards. Roulette seemed easier. Then the losses mounted, his bank account went into the red, and he began to think he might go broke. He went to the bathroom, splashed water on his face, and came back out to buy another £50,000 in chips. The Guardian
How much did Nicklas Bendtner lose that night?
Bendtner told BBC Sport he ended the night £20,000 down. That means he clawed back about £380,000 from his lowest point. The £400,000 figure is what he was down at the table before the night turned. Even the £20,000 loss sounds small when he tells it, which gives you some idea of how far his sense of scale had shifted by the time he walked out. BBC Sport
Back at his hotel, Bendtner had time to think about how close he felt he’d come to losing everything. He said that was when he decided his nights of gambling for that kind of money were over. The moment he remembered as a turning point came after he’d recovered most of the money, when it would have been easy to tell himself he’d handled it. BBC Sport
Before the casino, there was the North London derby
If you want to understand the feeling Bendtner said he was chasing, go back to December 2007. Arsenal and Tottenham were level at the Emirates when Arsène Wenger sent on a 19-year-old Bendtner. Cesc Fàbregas swung in a corner, Bendtner rose to meet it, and his first touch won the derby. Imagine being the teenager waiting on the touchline, then hearing the ground go up because you got your head to the ball. Bendtner remembered it as the moment he felt accepted at Arsenal. The Guardian
There was a Champions League hat-trick against Porto in 2010, too. The nickname “Lord Bendtner” would eventually become shorthand for the gap between how highly he rated himself and how the rest of football saw him. Those nights at the Emirates explain where some of that confidence came from. Arsenal had a young striker who could come off the bench cold and decide a derby before some people had even noticed the substitution. The Guardian · UEFA
What Bendtner was chasing at the roulette table
Bendtner connected the gambling to the stretches when injuries kept him off the pitch. He told the BBC he struggled to find anything that felt like playing in front of 60,000 people. The bigger the stakes at the casino, the closer he got to that rush. He also remembered Steve Bruce, who had managed him at Birmingham City, picking up the phone to check on him and telling him to be smarter with his money. BBC Sport
He revisited the story in 2020 while discussing Both Sides, the autobiography he wrote with Danish journalist Rune Skyum-Nielsen. Looking back, Bendtner wanted his younger self to understand what he had at Arsenal and take better care of it. You can hear why he kept coming back to that derby goal. Of all the things Bendtner could remember about scoring against Tottenham, what stayed with him was the feeling that he belonged there. The Guardian
Explore vintage Arsenal shirts at Saturdays Football
Photo of Nicklas Bendtner warming up for Arsenal against Newcastle in 2010 by Ed g2s, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original photo.
The Night Nicklas Bendtner Went £400,000 Down at Roulette
Ninety minutes is enough time for Nicklas Bendtner to score a hat-trick. At a London casino in the summer of 2011, it was enough time for him to go £400,000 down.
Bendtner was 23 and still an Arsenal player. By his own account, he turned up at his favorite casino around three in the morning, drunk enough to think better of sitting down to play cards. Roulette seemed easier. Then the losses mounted, his bank account went into the red, and he began to think he might go broke. He went to the bathroom, splashed water on his face, and came back out to buy another £50,000 in chips. The Guardian
How much did Nicklas Bendtner lose that night?
Bendtner told BBC Sport he ended the night £20,000 down. That means he clawed back about £380,000 from his lowest point. The £400,000 figure is what he was down at the table before the night turned. Even the £20,000 loss sounds small when he tells it, which gives you some idea of how far his sense of scale had shifted by the time he walked out. BBC Sport
Back at his hotel, Bendtner had time to think about how close he felt he’d come to losing everything. He said that was when he decided his nights of gambling for that kind of money were over. The moment he remembered as a turning point came after he’d recovered most of the money, when it would have been easy to tell himself he’d handled it. BBC Sport
Before the casino, there was the North London derby
If you want to understand the feeling Bendtner said he was chasing, go back to December 2007. Arsenal and Tottenham were level at the Emirates when Arsène Wenger sent on a 19-year-old Bendtner. Cesc Fàbregas swung in a corner, Bendtner rose to meet it, and his first touch won the derby. Imagine being the teenager waiting on the touchline, then hearing the ground go up because you got your head to the ball. Bendtner remembered it as the moment he felt accepted at Arsenal. The Guardian
There was a Champions League hat-trick against Porto in 2010, too. The nickname “Lord Bendtner” would eventually become shorthand for the gap between how highly he rated himself and how the rest of football saw him. Those nights at the Emirates explain where some of that confidence came from. Arsenal had a young striker who could come off the bench cold and decide a derby before some people had even noticed the substitution. The Guardian · UEFA
What Bendtner was chasing at the roulette table
Bendtner connected the gambling to the stretches when injuries kept him off the pitch. He told the BBC he struggled to find anything that felt like playing in front of 60,000 people. The bigger the stakes at the casino, the closer he got to that rush. He also remembered Steve Bruce, who had managed him at Birmingham City, picking up the phone to check on him and telling him to be smarter with his money. BBC Sport
He revisited the story in 2020 while discussing Both Sides, the autobiography he wrote with Danish journalist Rune Skyum-Nielsen. Looking back, Bendtner wanted his younger self to understand what he had at Arsenal and take better care of it. You can hear why he kept coming back to that derby goal. Of all the things Bendtner could remember about scoring against Tottenham, what stayed with him was the feeling that he belonged there. The Guardian
Explore vintage Arsenal shirts at Saturdays Football
Photo of Nicklas Bendtner warming up for Arsenal against Newcastle in 2010 by Ed g2s, CC BY-SA 3.0. Original photo.
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