A few weeks after the room welcomed Sweden’s Sofia Lӧvgren and Canada’s Xuan Liu to its already impressive team of ambassadors, 888poker surprised many once more announcing to have inked a deal with Uruguay’s football superstar Luis Suarez.
“It’s fantastic to have him on board,” said Senior Vice President of 888 Itai Pazner during a press conference held on May 13.
“Luis Suarez is an incredible sporting talent; passionate, competitive, technically gifted, and emotionally invested in the game. It’s those qualities that make him an exciting player to watch, in poker as well as football,” Pazner continued.
The 27-year-old Luis Suarez is considered to be among the best football strikers in the world. After an early start in Uruguay’s Club Nacional de Football, Suarez moved to Europe when he was 19 to play in the Dutch league with the Groeningen football team. One year later, Suarez moved to Amsterdam’s AFC Ajax, where he played for four consecutive seasons, scoring 111 goals in 159 matches. During his time at Ajax, he was also crowned “Dutch Player of the Year” after the 2009-10 season.
Before the 2010-11 season took off, Suarez decided to leave Amsterdam and accept a five-and-a-half year contract offer coming from England’s Liverpool to join the team and play in the Premier League. Since then, he has scored 220 goals in 363 matches. This season, Suarez was both the Barclays Player of the Season and was awarded the Barclays Golden Boot as well, scoring 31 goals and landing 12 assists.
According to a press release sent by 888poker, “El Pistolero” (“The Gunner”) will immediately start his adventure with the poker room. As an ambassador, Luis Suarez will play at the room’s online tables, participate to live events and “money-can’t-buy experiences.”
