Ex-Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner confesses blowing Sh699 million on Poker

Former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has confessed to blowing £6m when he was addicted to poker.

The Dane rose to fame at the Emirates after an initial loan spell at Birmingham.

But as a 19-year-old he was addicted to Texas Hold'Em and blew a huge amount of his wages.

“I lost a lot of money, an unrealistic amount" admitted the now Copenhagen man.

“It's hard to say how much it was in reality, but I'd estimate that it was almost 50 million Korona (around £5.4m). It was something that I was always in control of and I simply betted big sums of money.

"Sometimes in London, things would get out of control on a night and things could really have ended badly

"Now I place smaller bets of 100 Korona (around £12)."

Bendtner revealed all about his gambling addiction on a Danish reality show in which he appears with his model girlfriend Philine Roepstorff.

The former Gunner claims he has now learned from his experience.

Bendtner made his Arsenal debut in 2005 before leaving on a permanent basis in 2014.

He had three loan spells away during that period, most notably at Juventus where he won Serie A.

Bendtner left for Wolfsburg where he spent two years before returning to England with Nottingham Forest.

ince then he has returned to his native Scandinavia where he spent three years with Rosenborg.

Last year he signed for Copenhagen, the city of his birth, where he has played eight times this year.