Sport is made for betting

Item in today's RP suggests FIFA are considering banning in-play betting on football over corruption fears. 'What a great idea' will say the do-gooders and Daily Mail readers who don't have a clue about the outside world. Any knowledge of betting in football will let you swiftly decide this is the stupidest idea since awarding the World Cup to a country which bans alcohol and homosexuality, doesn't even have to hotel capacity to cater for one full stadium of visitors and will be 45-50C during July. Mark Davies has written an excellent post on it here - UEFA and FIFA: focus, please! If bookmakers offer 'micro-betting', markets on tiny events during the match such as next free kick or next throw-in, who is taking the risk? The bookie. What is a bookie's job to do? Manage risk. What happens when people fall out of trees to back one option in a multi-selection, reasonably random market? They shut it off and investigate, maybe even alerting sporting autho...

There's no denying that Australia is a nanny state now. Political correctness, occupational health & safety and ambulance-chasing lawyers have changed the fabric of society, almost entirely for the poorer. A couple of years ago, a constitutional challenge by corporate bookmakers and Betfair threw out the age-old ban on bookmakers advertising in states other than the one they were licensed in. It defied the constitutional notion of free trade across state borders which every other industry had benefitted from since federation in 1901. But the nanny state mentality fought back in order to protect their once state-owned monopoly TABs, with the banning of incentives for free bets - standard marketing practice anywhere else in the world. Bookies charged for bet offers CHARGES have been laid against three bookmakers just four days out from the biggest event of the Spring Carnival. The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulaion has laid charges against three bookmaker firms ove...

In a move which blatantly only serves to protect the incumbent land-based operators rather than act as social policy, the Gauteng Gambling Board has banned all online gambling (defined as casino operations) throughout South Africa. Note the name of the spokeperson quoted below.... Online gambling banned in South Africa It is now illegal to gamble using digital products in South Africa, the Gauteng Gambling Board said after a Friday court ruling. The judgement on the jurisdiction of online gambling transactions in the country was handed down by the North Gauteng High Court on August 20. This means that online gambling operators in South Africa and players will be in contravention of the law, and according to Business Day , could face a fine of R10-million or 10 years in jail, or both. According to the Gauteng Gambling Board's head of legal services, Lucky Lukhwareni, online casinos are now liable for prosecution. How could anyone take a person named Lu...

It's been talked about for years, now some states of the US and Canada are really starting to push hard. Will it be that long before the penny finally drops and the North American market really opens up? New Jersey lawmakers authorises online gambling operated by Atlantic City casinos Quebec Govt legalises online gambling Sports betting would save jobs, says MP It's getting closer. The question from a Federal point-of-view is - is there enough tax money in it for the Obama government, this far out from an election, to risk losing support in a controversial bill, especially from the morally superior, holier-than-thou voters in the south?