All bets are on

All bets are on
Jason Dowling
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/all-bets-are-on-20110331-1cn8o.html


Sports betting is exploding. But where there is betting on sports, corruption is not far away.


But there is a price. Some are warning the growth in sports betting has been too rapid for sports authorities and governments to prevent match-fixing and corruption.


Indeed, the AFL has been warned by tennis authorities that corrupt bookmakers and organised crime syndicates are now approaching sports stars through social networking sites such as Facebook for inside information.


Federal Sports Minister Mark Arbib says organised crime syndicates are cultivating young athletes for corrupt betting activity in the future. ''These [organised crime] groups are so well organised that they target vulnerable athletes when they're young; they groom them with cash payments, with gifts, compromise them - and we have seen this in the United States - then use them for criminal activity later on,'' he says.


Four big investigations under way in Australia are examining the threat of corrupt betting on the integrity of sport, considering new laws to prevent it and setting tougher penalties.


Last month the International Olympic Committee announced it would form a taskforce to deal with the problem.


Recent changes to advertising laws have also made sports betting advertisements ubiquitous. They are now seen on scoreboards and club websites and heard during commentary broadcasts. Channel Nine has come in for particular criticism over its commercial relationship with Betfair and odds being quoted during cricket broadcasts.


Davies says there is no doubt sports betting is growing faster than any other form of gambling. The attraction of sports betting, he says, is the ''variety of things you can bet on in sport. In racing you are pretty restricted, in sports the options know no bounds.''


The Productivity Commission says that in 2008 424,000 online sports wagering accounts were active in Australia, twice as many as in 2004. In 2008 about $391 million was spent on online sports wagering - a 73 per cent increase on 2004 levels. It does not include phone betting or cash wagering at TABs.


But has the growth been too fast for the relevant authorities to protect sport from corruption?


Anti-gambling campaigner Senator Nick Xenophon says: ''This almost symbiotic link between sporting bodies and sporting betting companies will turn out to be a cancer on our sporting codes.''


His concerns are shared by Monash University gambling expert Charles Livingstone, who says his young son checks the odds on the scoreboard at matches to see how his team is placed.


''If sporting organisations promote betting on their code, there is almost no doubt that corruption of the sport will follow in due course,'' Dr Livingstone says.


Anti-gambling campaigner Senator Nick Xenophon says: ''This almost symbiotic link between sporting bodies and sporting betting companies will turn out to be a cancer on our sporting codes.''


His concerns are shared by Monash University gambling expert Charles Livingstone, who says his young son checks the odds on the scoreboard at matches to see how his team is placed.


''If sporting organisations promote betting on their code, there is almost no doubt that corruption of the sport will follow in due course,'' Dr Livingstone says.


Years ago, Xenophon says, children used to quote player statistics and results, now they quote odds.


''Sport is meant to be a social event, a family event. It shouldn't be a gambling event,'' Xenophon says.


Many sporting codes, including the AFL and individual teams have struck commercial deals with sports betting agencies. The Western Bulldogs website even invites fans to bet with ''doggiesbet''.


The AFL will not say how much it makes from its commercial relationships with sports betting bodies.


And it is not just legal sports betting that is growing. Interpol has estimated that, globally, $140 billion a year is gambled illegally on sport.


Former International Cricket Council boss and now executive director of the Coalition of Major Professional Sports, Malcolm Speed, estimates at least $500 million was bet with illegal bookmakers on Wednesday's World Cup cricket semi-final when India played Pakistan.


The growth in sports betting - both legal and illegal - has been accompanied by sports betting corruption, match fixing, cheating and insider trading of information.


Indeed, sports betting corruption is tarnishing the image of sport around the world at alarming levels. In cricket, in just one of many betting scandals, the International Cricket Council last month banned former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and star bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for a minimum of five years after they were found guilty of conspiring with bookmakers to take part in spot-fixing.


In Japan, betting scandals have crippled sumo wrestling, and elsewhere sports such as soccer, tennis and boxing have been embroiled in sports betting scandals.


The International Olympic Committee is so worried about the threat of illicit betting it held its first meeting on the ''fight against irregular and illegal betting in sport'' last month.


Australia's Olympic boss, John Coates, wants the federal government to set up a regulatory authority to oversee the integrity of the nation's sports betting.


One Australian betting operator expects to turn over as much as $40 million in betting on the London Games in 2012.


The National Rugby League is working through its biggest sports betting scandal in recent memory. It involved unusual betting patterns on a ''micro bet'' during a match over whether the first score would be a penalty goal. One player, Ryan Tandy, has been sacked by his club, the Canterbury Bulldogs. Tandy and his manager and a former player have been charged by police.


Gambling experts and sporting bodies say ''micro-bets'' are the most likely to involve corruption, because individual players can determine the first score type but it is much more difficult to fix the results of a match involving a team.




Some, such as Charles Livingstone, believe a big sports betting scandal in Australia is inevitable.


''The genie is out of the bottle - a gambling scandal par excellence is only a matter of time.''


Jason Dowling is city editor.