2008 WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate has announced that he will be returning to professional poker to take up a sponsorship with Team Betfair Poker.

Eastgate's announcement comes as a surprise to many following his self-proclaimed retirement as a poker pro in 2010.

Eastgate was up until then signed as a member of Team PokerStars pro, but decided to look for new challenges in his life.

He only made very brief appearances on the poker scene since his retirement, among other things playing in last year's NBC Heads Up Championship.

With his new contract with Team Betfair Poker, however, Eastgate seems to have reconsidered his career, saying that he is now feeling the hunger for the game once again.

"I had a 10 month hiatus where I didn't play poker and the I felt the lust to play poker again because I still enjoy the game and there's still lots of challenges to the game," the London-based Dane said in an announcement video on YouTube.

"I'm not by any means the best player in the world, so there's still a lot of challenges," he added.

Eastgate also revealed that he has been traveling a lot during his break from the poker world, and that he was simply "fed up" with poker when he decided to quit.

He now hopes to invigorate his career, and to "have more fun" while playing, he said.

Eastgate won $9,152,416 when he took home the 2008 WSOP title, and has so far cashed for almost $11 million throughout his career.

In 2011, he created further headlines when he decided to auction away his WSOP Main Event bracelet on eBay, eventually cashing in almost $150,000 which he later donated to charity.