A British bookmaker has sparked controversy by offering odds on which England national team soccer player will come out as gay.

London’s Daily Mirror newspaper reported at the end of last week that two players, including one who has played for England in international matches, would reveal they are gay at the end of the current season.

While the unnamed players have received widespread public support there has, perhaps inevitably, been substantial speculation about who the individuals in question might be.

That was taken a step further on Tuesday by betting company Win Cash Live, which started taking bets on a list of odds it compiled that rated which players were most likely to “come out as gay before Sept. 1, 2016.”

The company promoted its odds market with a press release distributed by a public relations firm. Win Cash Live also sent out a Tweet from its official account that read: “The papers reckon an England footballer is going to come out as gay. Fancy a bet on who it will be? #gayfootballer.”

As of Wednesday morning, the company was still offering the odds, despite widespread derision.

“Homophobia in sport is a real issue that should not be cashed in on and trivialized,” said a spokesman for Stonewall, an organization promoting gay rights within soccer.

However, Win Cash Live founder Ashley Faull defended his company’s actions.

“We think it is a shame that the culture in football has made it so difficult for gay players to come out,” Faull told the Daily Mail. “We do not want to cause offense and are not seeking to trivialize the coming out of a gay England footballer, but it is the kind of high profile unpredictable market which Win Cash Live customers would expect us to offer odds on.”

English soccer has a troubled history in regards to homophobia. Chants and songs containing vulgar homophobic terms have long been heard with regularity at matches.

Justin Fashanu, the first British soccer player to come out as gay in 1990, received little support or sympathy from his fellow professionals or the soccer authorities. Fashanu committed suicide in 1998.

Former EPL player Thomas Hitzlsperger of Germany revealed he was homosexual in 2014, a year after the end of his playing career.

Robbie Rogers, now of the Los Angeles Galaxy, came out as gay in 2013 and left English soccer. He returned to the sport several months later and won an MLS Cup title with the Galaxy in 2014.