Sport is made for betting

As mentioned on this blog earlier in the year, Australian sports fans have been overwhelmed this year by betting advertising. That's fine if you love a punt, but if you have to avoid it for various reasons, there really was nowhere to turn. Live odds updates on scoreboards, official websites carrying live prices, and most annoying of all, the repeated paid plugs with live odds read out by the commentators. There has to be a happy medium - enough to interest potential punters but also allow those with no interest to tune out. MCG Trust tackles sports gambling head-on A significant blow against the pervasive advertising of sports betting at main venues has been struck. As Fairfax reported yesterday, the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust will not renew an agreement with Betfair, which displays updated odds on scoreboards during AFL games. The MCG Trust, which controls a stadium where crowds of up to 100,000 gather, imposed the ban on live odds updates after complaints from members...

Sad news today of an Australian sports bookmaker going bust. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) website shows that liquidators have been appointed for SportsAlive. Should SportsAlive have adhered to their licensing conditions, specifically the one below, then all should be fine for punters. However, it sounds like a few guys have been slow paid for a while (this year's not the first time they've had cash flow problems) so it may be that one of them got fed up with it and called in the lawyers. Staff apparently hadn't been paid for a fortnight either. 4. Segregated Bank Accounts 4.1 A sports bookmaker must, for the purposes of the sports bookmaking business, maintain a segregated sports betting bank account for the purpose of betting monies received. For full details of the ACT legislation, where SportsAlive were licensed, click here . This is a critical test of the strength of Australian bookmaking regulations. Hopefully it won't be ...

Bayer Leverkusen announce a shirt sponsorship deal with solar developer Sunpower , one of several deals with renewable energy firms in German football. Bayern Munich have a deal with Yingli, Hoffenheim have one with Wirsol and I've probably missed one or two more... Meanwhile in England, we have clubs wearing sponsorship logos from 188Bet, 10Bet, 12Bet, 888, 32Red, Bodog, Fun88, Genting Casino, SBOBet, Sportingbet plus other deals with firms like Betfair, Blue Square and others I'm sure I've missed. German legislation re gambling aside, it says a lot about the state of the respective economies and their outlook for the future doesn't it?

Lots going on, but very short of time lately, here's a quick look at what has been going on... Sportingbet are keen to be acquired by Ladbrokes, but the 'Magic Sign' are nervous about SB's activity in Turkey , one of the strongest regions of their business. If Sportingbet are serious about the sale going through, looks like they will have to sell that part of the company. The Betfair share price keeps on tumbling , not even the internal buyback scheme can stop the price sliding, sliding away... The Gold Coast Turf Club is targetting night racing as a way to move themselves up the ladder of Australian racing. Sounds like a positive move, the weather's great up there but when they run their feature Magic Millions Day in January when it is approaching 40C, that's ridiculous. The racecourse does need a serious upgrade to its facilities if they want to become a bigger club, getting into the Friday night rotation of meetings would probably serve them better tha...

A lot to catch up on after my recent time away, here are some of the stories making the news: The Australian Federal Government has promised a review of online gambling and might finally do away with the ridiculous ban on in-play betting online. But then again, they might not... Note the incorrect linking of Serie A matches with match-fixing for betting by the Australian Crime Commission. Full Tilt Poker's licence has been suspended with immediate effect by Alderney regulators. Was it their decision or did the Yanks have a word in their ear? Betfair are searching for a new CEO and analysts admit it is a "potential opportunity for improvement". Financial results for Betfair show profits up but revenue down . Punters are rallying against Betfair's decision to heftily increase the Premium Charge. Check out the Facebook group here. Poland has signed in their draconian gambling legislation banning all firms without a local licence. As a result, some firms, ...

Once upon a time, Betfair's best marketing line was 'Winners Are Welcome'. Not any more. In a desperate move to show the shaer market they have more options to increase their revenues, Betfair's biggest winners will be hit with an even higher Premium Charge rate. For full details, read here - Betfair Premium Charge Hike details Realistically, how many people will it affect? A very small number. You've got to have done very well to win £250k after commission over the years. But what will it do to liquidity? Well, the people it will hurt are the elite level traders such as Mr Bet Angel. Peter Webb and the best of his genre. Traders lose infrequently, so thus are destined to pay less commission than your average winning punter. The big liquidity providers who market-make across the board will be hit - 40% commission on your gross profits is a stiff ask, you'd need some heavy losses mixed in there to sweeten them up. This comes on top of their less-publicised...

The basket case of the EU, Greece, has decided to move with the times and licence other gambling operators in the country in order to clear some of its monumental debts. Greeks are renowned for their love of betting but they've mostly had to do it through the local monopoly charging extortionate margins. But the government's attempt at coming up with a licensing regime is very ambitious in terms of the revenue it will bring in, and flawed in terms of how its regulations fit with EU law. Not only have they tried to block betting exchanges, but some of their other plans are just a wee bit extreme... Betfair files complaint with EC over Greek draft law Betfair has filed a complaint with the European Commission over the ban on betting exchanges contained within the Greek draft egaming law. Martin Cruddace, Betfair’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said: “Having played a constructive role in the preparatory phase of the draft Greek gaming law, we were disappointed with the...

I'm sick of this bullshit of the 'age of forgiveness'. Not that long ago, people had honour - when they laid their cards on the table and screwed up royally, they packed their bags and left. These days it's like the Aussie cricket team - harder to leave than it is to get in, no matter how shit you are at what you do. Ricky Ponting was allowed to lose the Ashes three times before being forced to walk the plank as captain. If you can bullshit with the best of them, you've got a job for life apparently. BHA Chief Exec Paul Roy has made at least three absolute blunders whilst at the helm which should have sent him to the dole queue a long time ago. But it seems he is impossible to sack and won't walk because he has less class than a Premier League footballer with a superinjunction. Blunder 1 - in his other role as big cheese of an investment firm, he recommended buying a big chunk of shares in Betfair. The fact he didn't notice they were massively overvalu...

After a few attempted rorts in rugby league and a few plunges based on leaked team information, the major Australian sports, backed by a few clueless politicians and media desperate for a story, have proposed clampdowns on exotic bet types. Now we all hate match-fixing in sport, don't get me wrong there, but invariably these shenanigans are restricted to betting via illegal bookies, where there is no audit trail for investigators to pick up. Legal betting outlets don't drop the ball very often. At the first sign of suspicious betting, alarm bells go off and word spreads like wildfire. The accounts in question are marked forever and the total exposure involved is usually only a few grand - less than they'll get out of the PR value of the ensuing story! Andrew Twaits says tighter controls on online poker is necessary *snipped* Sportingbet Australia chief executive, Michael Sullivan, called yesterday on professional sports under the Coalition of Major Professional and...

Not a glowing article about them in the Guardian today, just backing up the anecdotal stories heard elsewhere. The problem for them is that many of those staff listed as leaving are the 'good eggs', frustrated as hell by the impenetrable cliques and bone-headed decision making going on elsewhere. The firm has lost nearly half its paper value since it floated - surely it's time for blood at the top? Going looks hard for Betfair as managers quit and shares fall Wave of middle-management departures rocks betting exchange already reeling from shares selloff Betfair, the embattled betting exchange, has been rocked by a fresh crisis following a wave of middle-management departures. The defections come as the company digests the results of a private poll of staff revealing that employees believe their company lacks direction. This year's departures include: Mathias Entenmann, chief product and services officer; Charlie Palmer, head of mobile; and Robin Osmond, chief e...

There's been more than enough proof over the years that this South Australian senator is just a headline seeker when it comes to his views against gambling. I admired his stance against pokies (slots/fruit machines in other parts of the world) which are in plague proportions in most of Australia, but his credibility, if he had any left, is seriously undermined when he gets involved in an argument like this. MP calls for ban on rate-rise betting Betting on the Reserve Bank's interest rates decision should be banned because it ''invites trouble'' and opens the door to corruption, Independent Nick Xenophon says. The Age yesterday reported that a stand-off between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and online betting agency Centrebet, over betting on interest rate rises, had ended. ''Millions of Australians are affected by interest rate movements. It is not a game for families; for many families it can be the difference between pay...

Last month, German politicians voted to regulate online gambling with a farcical, uncompetitive regime which would only send punters abroad in search of half-decent odds. At least 15 of the 16 states voted for it, one - Schleswig-Holstein - rocked the boat by going their own way.... Breaking News: EC approves Schleswig-Holstein law The European Commission has ruled Schleswig-Holstein’s draft gambling law as compliant with EU law, giving Germany’s northernmost state the green light to pass a bill this summer and the licensing process to begin as early as this autumn, eGaming Review has learned. . . bwin.party's Shepherd added: "We are encouraged by the outcome of the EU notification process for Schleswig-Holstein’s proposed law for online gaming. With just two minor points to be addressed, we view the EU’s findings as a clear signal to the other 15 Federal States that Schleswig-Holstein is moving in the right direction.” Betfair said that in contrast to the draft St...

Shock horror in this one - a Betfair-funded study favours exchange betting and says it has caused no damage to the racing industries in the UK and Australia. Now I'm not going to get into the argument of whether it has or it hasn't, but you could bet as much as you like at a price shorter than 1.01 (with a much greater likelihood of occurrence than Blackstairmountain winning) that the outcome was already decided..... why would Betfair fund a research study if they didn't know what "Eugene Christiansen, the noted U.S. gambling-industry analyst" was going to surmise? Is there such thing as an independent study anymore? Call me a cynical bastard but every research study seems to conveniently agree with the people stumping up the cash.....

....But it wasn't over sporting integrity, it was over a voting & betting scandal on the X Factor... Virgin Media staff in X Factor bet scam Three Virgin Media employees have been sacked after using internal data on X Factor voting to bet on the show. The three staff members bet on the outcomes of the show's weekly eliminations. The Gambling Commission investigated after being alerted to suspicious activity by online bookmaker Betfair. "We are satisfied that the bets placed were substantially unfair as the individuals involved had inside information," the commission said. .... According to the Gambling Commission, £16,000 worth of bets have been declared void, the first time such powers have been used under the Gambling Act 2005. Nice to see them doing something but how about investigating something important, like bent football or snooker matches?

Not got as much time on my hands at the moment, so I'll try to keep the site fresh with a weekly update as a minimum... Betfair shares break back through the £10 mark as their financial trading arm LMAX flounders . The newly-recruited CEO has gone after just three months; sounds like either a major difference of opinions or a long walk off a short pier. Also leaving is 'Chief Products and Services Officer' Matthias Entenmann. Considering the service these days is the most criticised part of the business from customers and the major shareholders will be looking for scapegoats, my guess is his share options had matured and he decided to jump before he was pushed. The quest for licensing in Europe continues, and is messy as always. Greece started off with a ridiculous 6% turnover levy and have now switched to 30% GPT, which won't be too popular either, but at least it's manageable in a jurisdiction switching from monopolistic margins. The Greek government has also...

With confidence that the shambolic pre-Cheltenham site crashes are over now their servers are fully operational in Gibraltar, Betfair's share price has started to climb again. It has been helped today with a case win in the Netherlands , part of a long, protracted battle against the monopolistic Dutch government who refused to consider their licence application. Whether that eventually turns into permission to take bets from Dutch residents is another matter, but it's a start... Betfair stocks were trading at 935p this afternoon, on a steady rise from around 870p early in the week.

No great surprises here as the Betfair share price continued to slide, they needed to do something. Sources told me that a Gibraltar office was being fitted out several weeks ago in preparation for the move, which shocked nobody. Do Betfair deserve to be singled out for criticism in moving their betting operations (but very few of their staff) to Gibraltar? No, they're not the first grandmother-selling company to do it, but hopefully they'll be the last. Word is that the DCMS are close to announcing new regulations for gambling operators targetting the UK - pay the full amount of tax (and hopefully levy) that a fully UK-based firm pays or you will not be allowed to advertise within the UK. In theory, this should raise questions re European law, but other countries such as France and Italy have managed it, so now is the time for the UK government to show their muscle (though hopefully not William Hague - he couldn't scare a kitten). And after that, it wouldn't be suc...

News surfaced late last week that the state of New Jersey wish to sell off Monmouth Park thoroughbred track and Meadowlands harness track to help fix the state's ailing finances. One of the names mentioned as a potential bidder has been Betfair. Betfair interested in purchasing Monmouth Park Betfair, a popular exchange wagering company in England who also owns Television Games Network, is reportedly interested in purchasing Monmouth Park. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said three weeks ago that state officials would request proposals for the sale of Monmouth, along with rights to operating off-track betting. It's an interesting scenario. New Jersey is one of the two (along with California) states that have passed legislation to allow exchange betting in the near future, but there are still numerous battles to fight before that goes ahead - namely the legitimacy/morality of laying and the return to the horsemen's groups (i.e. prizemoney)... and that's before th...

No marvellous green book to show off this year, although it was a decent profit on turnover considering how little liquidity was on Betfair. Being on Premier Sports for the first time didn't help since very few people have subscribed to it, plus the Betfair site has been dodgier than the BBC's 'The Real Hustle' recently. It was easy enough to get a live stream but I doubt many others would have bothered. It's not the most popular sport outside of the US anyway, and also having to deal with a toddler who didn't want to go to bed before 11pm made it incredibly difficult to trade! I'd emptied most of my acct recently, so I'm more than happy with a £45 green book from a £60 balance. Same old theory for low liquidity, many runner events. Just keep putting up half-decent offers for small stakes. Increase the size of the lays as you create more green on the other runners. Don't get over-competitive (let someone else jump ahead of you in the queue if they...

You seriously have to wonder where the brains department of Betfair have disappeared to. A TV campaign based around the theme 'cut out the middleman'. Look it up in the dictionary - Betfair are the irrefutable definition of the word: mid·dle·man     [mid-l-man] –noun, plural -men. 1. a person who plays an economic role intermediate between producer and retailer or consumer. 2. a person who acts as an intermediary. So what else do Betfair do then?? The Advertising Standards Authority yesterday banned the ad after a series of complaints, stating that the advert was misleading and conveniently forgot to mention they take out a commission.