The Hammers midfielder is currently subject of an FA investigation in regards to suspicious betting patterns. The situation has seen his potential move to Premier League champions Manchester City collapse and has left the Brazilian's imminent future uncertain.
Mail Sport has since discovered that it was West Ham's own sponsor Betway that flagged a potential issue. The betting company has their own measures in space to monitor such things and their 'integrity alert system' was triggered by a flurry of bets placed on Paqueta to be booked against Aston Villa back in March.
Paqueta was shown a yellow card with 14 minutes of the 1-1 draw left with the Brazilian picking up the only caution of the game. The spike in bets have been traced back to Paqueta Island in Guanabara Bay near Rio de Janeiro, which is where the West Ham midfielder spent his childhood.
Betway immediately reported the suspicious pattern to the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) who are a global group of bookmakers responsible for ensuring that incidents such as this don't go unnoticed. They highlighted the situation to FIFA who then alerted the FA, prompting their investigation.
This development certainly doesn't help Paqueta's case with the midfielder facing serious sanctions should he be found guilty of breaching football's strict betting rules. With Ivan Toney's eight-month ban still fresh in the mind, Paqueta will be hoping he can avoid a similar punishment if he is found guilty of any wrongdoing.
