Why do athletes use Nicotine Pouches?

Nicotine pouches have become increasingly visible in professional sport, particularly in football, ice hockey and other team-based environments. They are small, discreet and do not require smoking, vaping or combustion, making them easy to use during travel, after training or inside a dressing room.

However, their popularity does not necessarily mean that nicotine pouches improve athletic performance. Current research suggests that athletes mainly use them for perceived mental focus, relaxation, stress management, convenience and social reasons,not because nicotine has been proven to make athletes physically stronger, faster or more enduring.

It is also important to distinguish between traditional snus and modern nicotine pouches. Traditional Swedish snus contains tobacco, while nicotine pouches are tobacco-free. In professional football, however, players commonly use the word “snus” when referring to both products. Research commissioned by the Professional Footballers’ Association found that most surveyed users were actually using legal, tobacco-free nicotine pouches rather than tobacco-based snus.

Why Are Nicotine Pouches Popular Among Athletes?

There is no single reason why athletes use nicotine pouches. Some users associate nicotine with greater alertness or mental readiness, while others use it to relax after competition. For regular users, consumption can also become part of a daily routine driven by social habits, cravings or nicotine dependence.

The product format itself is another important factor. Nicotine pouches:

• Produce no smoke or vapour
• Can be used discreetly under the upper lip
• Require no additional equipment
• Are easy to carry during travel
• Can be used in places where smoking and vaping are prohibited

This makes nicotine pouches more practical within professional sporting environments than cigarettes or vaping products. Convenience may explain why an athlete chooses a pouch, although it does not necessarily explain why the athlete started using nicotine in the first place.

Focus and Mental Alertness

Nicotine stimulates the nervous system and can temporarily influence alertness, attention and reaction time. This is one reason some athletes report using nicotine before training, matches or other situations in which they want to feel mentally prepared.

A small study involving baseball players found improvements in motor reaction time, fine motor performance and baseball-hitting performance after nicotine intake. The study did not find an improvement in muscle strength, and the observed effects were relatively modest. Its results should therefore not be interpreted as proof that nicotine improves performance across all sports or that nicotine pouches would produce the same outcome.

Perception is also important. An athlete may feel sharper, more confident or more prepared after using nicotine even when objective physical performance has not improved. In English professional football, the most commonly reported perceived performance-related benefit was improved mental readiness rather than increased physical capacity.

Stress Relief and Pre-Match Nerves

Athletes operate in high-pressure environments. Professional players must manage competition, public scrutiny, contract uncertainty, travel, injuries and the emotional intensity of important matches.

A study of English professional football found that 18% of surveyed male players and 22% of surveyed female players currently used snus, nicotine pouches or both. Lifetime use was considerably higher, with 42% of the men and 39% of the women reporting that they had tried the products at least once.

Players reported using the products for reasons that included:

• Relaxation
• Stress management
• Social interaction
• Boredom
• Nicotine cravings
• Unwinding after training or matches

Club staff described some players using nicotine as a coping mechanism to come down from the adrenaline of evening games.

Nicotine can appear both stimulating and calming. In an established user, however, some of the perceived relaxation may come from relieving withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, restlessness or cravings. The product may therefore feel calming partly because it removes discomfort created by nicotine dependence.

Team Culture and Social Use

Team culture appears to be one of the most important explanations for nicotine use in professional sport.

An analysis of more than 60,000 doping-control samples from athletes in 90 sports found nicotine exposure in approximately one in five samples collected during competition. Nicotine positivity was higher in team sports than in individual sports and was also higher in strength- and power-based sports than in endurance disciplines. These samples demonstrate nicotine exposure but cannot identify whether the nicotine came from pouches, snus, vaping, cigarettes or another nicotine product.

Within a team environment, nicotine use can spread through:

• Teammates introducing products to younger players
• Dressing-room habits
• Pre-match and post-match rituals
• Long journeys and waiting periods
• Social use during days off
• Normalisation among established professional players

The PFA research found that players frequently used pouches socially to relax and spend time with teammates. Some users also reported that being surrounded by other users made quitting more difficult.

This may help explain why nicotine use has frequently been associated with football and ice hockey. Reviews of nicotine use in sport have identified particularly high usage in team sports, baseball, ice hockey and several strength- or winter-sport environments.

Nicotine Pouches in the Premier League and Bundesliga

Snus and nicotine pouches have been discussed in English football for several years. Photographs have appeared showing or associating multiple English players with tins of snus or nicotine products like VELO and Pablo snus, including images of England internationals Jamie Vardy and Dele Alli during international duty.

The same phenomenon has been reported in Germany. Bundesliga players have also been photographed, publicly associated with snus or asked about their use. Former Hoffenheim defender Håvard Nordtveit, for example, publicly confirmed that he used snus to varying degrees during his Bundesliga career.

These individual photographs should not be used to estimate how widespread consumption is. However, when combined with anonymous player surveys and reports from club staff, they demonstrate that nicotine use is not limited to Scandinavian sport. It has become part of the wider conversation around professional football in both England and Germany.

Appetite and Weight Management

Some athletes also report using nicotine for appetite suppression or weight control. Nicotine can reduce appetite temporarily, which may make it attractive in sports where body composition, weight categories or a lean physique receive significant attention.

The English football research identified appetite control as one of the reported reasons for use. However, nicotine should not be presented as a healthy or appropriate weight-loss method. It is addictive, and using it to control food intake can create a dependence that continues long after the original reason for using it has disappeared.

Do Nicotine Pouches Improve Sports Performance?

The scientific evidence is mixed and generally weak.

A systematic review found that only one of six studies measuring endurance-related performance reported a significant improvement from nicotine. Results involving anaerobic performance, strength and explosive power were also inconsistent.

For example, one experiment found improved leg-extension torque after a low dose of nicotine gum but no improvement in countermovement jumping or Wingate anaerobic performance.

Another study examining a considerably higher oral nicotine dose found no improvement in the physical performance measures being tested.

The effects may also differ between nicotine-naive people and regular users. When a dependent athlete stops using nicotine, withdrawal can negatively affect mood, concentration and perceived readiness. Reintroducing nicotine may reverse those withdrawal effects, but that is not necessarily the same as improving performance above the athlete’s normal nicotine-free baseline.

The most accurate conclusion is therefore:

Some athletes feel that nicotine improves their focus, readiness or sense of wellbeing, but there is not enough evidence to conclude that nicotine pouches generally improve athletic performance.

Another limitation is that much of the available sports research has examined traditional snus, nicotine gum, patches or oral nicotine strips. Far fewer studies have specifically investigated modern, tobacco-free nicotine pouches. Findings from one delivery method should not automatically be treated as proof of identical effects from another.

Are Nicotine Pouches Banned in Sports?

Nicotine is not prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2026.

It is, however, included in WADA’s 2026 Monitoring Program for in-competition use. The Monitoring Program allows WADA to track usage patterns involving substances that are not currently prohibited. Therefore, the detection of nicotine alone does not constitute an anti-doping violation under the 2026 Prohibited List.

Athletes must still be careful about the products they use. Supplements and nicotine products obtained from unverified sources may contain undeclared or contaminated ingredients. A legal nicotine pouch does not automatically guarantee that every substance inside a poorly controlled product complies with anti-doping rules.

Potential Risks for Athletes

Nicotine pouches do not expose the lungs to smoke or vapour, but that does not make them risk-free.

Potential risks include:

• Nicotine dependence and addiction
• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Nausea, dizziness and headaches
• Heart palpitations, particularly at higher doses
• Sleep disturbances
• Tolerance and withdrawal symptoms
• Irritation of the gums and oral tissues
• Dry mouth, soreness or a burning sensation

Recent reviews have found that immediate effects may include increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, nausea, dizziness, headaches and oral irritation. Research into the long-term effects of tobacco-free nicotine pouches remains limited because these products are relatively new and long-term prospective studies are still lacking.

Dependence is particularly relevant in professional football. In the PFA study, 53% of male users and 73% of female users reported at least one indicator of nicotine dependence. Common withdrawal symptoms included cravings, irritability and restlessness, and more than half of current male users said they wanted to quit within the following year.

Nicotine Pouches Compared With Smoking and Vaping

Unlike cigarettes, nicotine pouches do not involve combustion. Unlike vaping, they do not require users to inhale an aerosol into the lungs. They also produce no second-hand smoke or vapour.

These differences explain why some existing nicotine users may view pouches as a more practical alternative to smoking or vaping. However, a comparison with more harmful products should not be interpreted as evidence that nicotine pouches are harmless.

For an athlete who does not already use nicotine, beginning to use nicotine pouches introduces a risk of addiction without any reliably proven physical performance benefit. For an established nicotine user, the relative risks may depend on the previous product, nicotine dose, frequency of use and individual health circumstances.

Conclusion

Athletes appear to use nicotine pouches primarily for perceived focus, mental readiness, relaxation, stress management, convenience and social reasons. Team culture is particularly influential in football, ice hockey and other sports where players spend large amounts of time together in dressing rooms, hotels and during travel.

Although some users report feeling more alert or prepared, research does not show that nicotine pouches consistently improve endurance, strength, speed or explosive performance. Nicotine is not prohibited by WADA in 2026, but it remains under monitoring during competition.

The products may be tobacco-free and smoke-free, but they still contain an addictive substance. Nicotine pouches should therefore not be promoted as a training supplement, weight-control method or scientifically proven performance enhancer.

Read our next article Why Are Mint Nicotine Pouches So Popular?