Sports betting

AFL needs to lift its head from the sand on gambling risks
20 September 2010


From the National Times on September 20, 2010:

The league's defences against corruption are ridiculously naive.

MILLIONS of dollars will be bet on this weekend's AFL grand final - but it is only good luck and not good management that the sport is yet to suffer the same type of betting scandals that have rocked most other major codes around the world.
Gambling now presents as great a threat to the integrity of sport as performance-enhancing drugs did in the 1980s and '90s, but the AFL Commission has taken a head-in-the-sand approach, revelling in the endless bounty of gambling licence agreements while running an integrity system designed only to catch dummies.

Gambling is now as ubiquitous at the football as meat pies. Punters will bet on every facet of the grand final - score margins, first goals, which players get more goals or disposals.

The AFL's defence against the threat of gambling is to check with bookmakers if any players have been betting on matches. It does this by checking if players have bet under their own names.

I am not sure many of those caught match-fixing in other sports have opened accounts in their own names and placed large bets on matches they could influence. The AFL's is a ridiculous defence against corruption.

Former bookmaker and Footscray full-forward Simon Beasley has said the AFL was in ''noddy land'' if it thought it could control betting by players or officials. ''What can the AFL do if your wife puts the bets on? What can they do about a player who has a mate who bets enormously on information the player supplies?'' he said this year in a newspaper interview.

And what about players or officials who bet with cash?

The AFL has caught players and officials betting small amounts on matches, and dealt with them severely. But such detections are never likely to uncover match-fixing - corruption is rarely that simple. AFL bosses will be closely watching an investigation under way into circumstances surrounding this year's round 24 National Rugby League match between the North Queensland Cowboys and the Canterbury Bulldogs.

The matter was referred to police by the NRL following an examination of betting patterns leading into the match - NRL boss David Gallop warned this week that any player involved in match-fixing would face a life ban.

Tony Robinson, the minister responsible for gambling in Victoria, has repeatedly warned of the dangers gambling presents to sport. ''Ultimately, if these rules aren't enforced, there will be a day where we will pay for it - where there is a scandal exposed which undermines the entire integrity of these sporting codes and that will do a great deal of damage to the code,'' he said.

Bookies have told The Age that they consider the AFL one of the best sports in the world in terms of integrity and probity. Yet the AFL's checks and balances to safeguard against the threat of gambling are not as tight as in other sports. For example, where international cricket has banned mobile phones in change rooms, the AFL has not.

The AFL will also not say if it is examining player phone records to check for any unusual contact with bookies. Some are now concerned that the growth in telephone and internet betting technology and the proliferation of gambling providers are exponentially expanding the reach and opportunity for gambling in sport - and the risk.

Spot betting during matches poses one of the greatest risks. Bets such as who kicks the first goal could be open to corruption if an opposition player gives away a free kick in front of goal.

Not for a second can the AFL believe it is immune to betting corruption. Players have admitted to gambling addictions and the money to be made has grown enormously. The danger signs should not be ignored.

The former head of the International Cricket Council, Malcolm Speed, is working with codes such as the AFL to ensure they have the appropriate integrity measures to safeguard against gambling corruption, and in 2008 the AFL also hired senior Racing Victoria integrity manager Brett Clothier as the AFL's new manager of integrity services. But much more needs to be done.

The only way to guarantee the integrity of the sport is to limit the types of bets that can be placed, increase regulation on ''in-play betting'' or spot bets, and wind back the gambling culture that has hijacked the AFL. As part of this, scoreboards at matches should stick to the scores - not publicise the odds.

Research shows professional sports people are more likely to engage in betting-related behaviour during a game if it is unlikely to have a big impact on the outcome of a match.

A gambling summit should be held by the AFL and all clubs over the summer to tackle gambling, map out the types of bets that should be permitted and how far clubs and the AFL are prepared to allow gambling to intrude on the competition. Then the AFL can get back to its core business - football matches.

By: Jason Dowling