Sport is made for betting

Lots of moaning on Twitter etc about the nominated group, particularly re no women being in the mix. But let's have a look at the list and see who might have genuinely been robbed of a spot on the list. Mark Cavendish - incredible year and worthy favourite. Luke Donald - number one golfer in the world, huge achievement despite not winning a major. Rory McIlroy - bagged Caroline Wozniacki, that's worth being on the list in itself! But seriously, won the US Open and has an amazing career ahead of him. Darren Clarke - won the Open Championship despite his career starting to wain. A real personality of professional golf, so depending on which quality you think defines this award... Mo Farah - outstanding year on the track. No longer the best of the non-Africans, he is now world champion at 5000m and world silver medallist in the 10000m. Dai Greene - world champion at the 400 sticks. Doubt it puts him above Farah, but popular guy, Welsh support etc.. Andrew Strauss - led Eng...

Ok, plenty been happening lately, here's some of the news in brief. Betfair - have announced the new CEO, Breon Corcoran from Paddy Power, will take over in August 2012 after a lengthy stint of enforced gardening. The company still need to find a new Chairman with Ed Wray intending to stand down. Last week, Chief Commercial Officer Niall Wass announced he was leaving the firm after missing out on the CEO job. He's off to an even bigger money-grubber firm in the short-term loaners Wonga. No great loss there, he has been high up the company through a lot of their woes. It is expected that Corcoran will bring in several people to take key posts. Andrew Black sold off around £1.5m of shares, apparently for a new tech firm investment he's involved with. It's not as if he's cashing out just out yet, his stake in Betfair is still valued at around £75m. Denmark and Spain are ready to open up for licensing, with several international firms lining up to apply. Meanwhile in...

Glad to see Italian courts have the laws to send corrupt sports official to jail. The people behind the Calciopoli scandal have been handed harsh sentences, hopefully sending a strong precedent in Italian football. This might be the biggest scandal they've had, but it's really the tip of the iceberg. Other incidents are often individual favours between clubs rather than being coordinated by an external syndicate. Note in this case, and nearly all the suspicious Italian matches, it's not about match-fixing for betting, but to win titles or avoid relegation. Moggi gets 5 years in fix scandal Former Juventus executive Luciano Moggi was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by a Naples court Tuesday for his role in the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five years and eight months for Moggi on charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud. Another former Juventus executive, Antonio Giraudo, already rec...

Sky News broke the story on Saturday night that Paddy Power Chief Operating Officer Breon Corcoran will replace David Yu as Betfair CEO. The outgoing CEO David Yu announced earlier in the year that he wouldn't be seeking an extension of his contract from October 2012, and would even be prepared to leave earlier should a replacement be found. The official announcement to the stock exchange is expected on Monday morning, it will be interesting to see how it responds. When you compare the rapid growth of Paddy Power in recent years, and the dismal share price of Betfair since the float, you would think the market will react positively. All I know is, the new guy will have a lot of work to do to restore the confidence of the punters that got them to where they are today, and the financial market... Betfair poaches Paddy Power exec for CEO - report Nov 6 (Reuters) - Online betting group Betfair will announce the appointment of Paddy Power's Breon Corcoran as its new chief executi...

News today that the spot-fixing corruption case in London has returned guilty verdicts on the first charges against Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt and leading pace bowler Mohammed Asif. Butt has been found guilty of accepting money for corruption, and both players found guilty of conspiracy to cheat. (Asif's charge of accepting money for corruption is still to reach a verdict). The third player in the trial, Mohammed Amir, is believed to have pleaded guilty in advance. This is a great step forward in the fight against corruption in all sports, not just cricket. It shows convictions can be secured, but it also shows just how difficult they are to achieve. Lots of finger-pointing at the ICC and their anti-corruption unit today for their poor performance. After all, it was journalists from the now-defunct News of the World tabloid paper that captured all the evidence and then handed a gift-wrapped file to British police. The ICC are caught between a rock and a hard place here. ...