Sport is made for betting

Courtesy of Tennisform A betting racket has rocked the ongoing Chennai Open tennis tournament in the city reports the Deccan Chronicle. The event organisers unearthed the scam after an interrogation of four foreign nationals — two Germans, an Italian and a Russian, who were caught betting live from the stadium through their gadgets. All of them belong to the international betting syndicate and have come all the way to Chennai only for online gambling. Fernando Soler, the tournament director, confirmed the betting incident. “They were caught but let off with a warning,” he said. However, a Tamil Nadu Tennis Association official added that the city police officials visited their hotels and interrogated them. “The ATP has taken photos of the accused and noted down their passport details, which will be circulated to tournaments across the world to curb the betting,” informed the senior official. With a time difference of 15 seconds between the live match and online scoring system, tennis...

In the light of the Renault scandal in Formula 1, Bloodgate in rugby union, and football scandals such as the one Juventus was relegated for in Serie A, is it too easy for sporting authorities to blame gambling for all its integrity problems? Fair enough, there are obviously some issues with it, but ever since there has been a prize for winning a competition, people have found devious ways to win, or stop others from winning. Look at scandals in kids' beauty pageants, flower growing contests , elections, tanking for better draft picks etc - where someone has something to gain, cheating will never be far away. And that's without even discussing drugs in sport. Biggest threat to Sports Integrity comes from within While no one can argue that manipulation of sports by betting syndicates does not exist, the reality is that the most concerted efforts at manipulation are made by criminal elements via illegal bookmakers, and not as it is suggested, by online gamblers who in the majori...

It's not hard to see the Racing Post has changed in recent years - sales are down as much as 40% in four years, Betfair scrapped their £1m+ annual advertising deal with them after they refused to cut the price despite flagging sales figures, and it's virtually a bookies' mouthpiece with very little criticism in there. The punter wants independence of thought, not just well-scripted material from bookie headquarters. Writer Paul Haigh blasts Racing Post in resignation letter Fair play to him for having principles. What's the point of being a journalist if you can't have integrity. But from the Racing Post side of it, what else are they to do? 90% plus of their ad revenues will come from bookmakers and exchanges, and understandably, they won't want to be advertising in a rag which is critical of them. But a line has to be drawn somewhere. There are certain journos out there whom you know have just added their name to the top of a press release (eg Rod Nicholson in...

The AFL (Australain Football League) has been attacked for taking money from betting firms in recent years without maintaining integrity over the sport. Nothing like match-fixing, but specifically team news being unofficial until 45 minutes before the game and teams obviously not trying in the latter half of the season in order to gain better draft picks. This move from the AFL is to be applauded but it's really only a drop in the ocean. Full disclosure on injuries such as the American system would be a much bigger step forward. A randomisation of the draft picks order, seeded in favour of the worst-performing teams, but not solely on ladder position, would be another step forward.

Just as the BBC try to make a song and dance about things that 'allegedly' happened years ago (Panorama investigation into corruption in British racing), Betfair have signed more integrity agreements with sporting bodies. Recent additions include TRSA (Thoroughbred Racing South Australia), Queensland Harness Racing and the IOC. But apparently, it's an endorsement of evil in NSW, so Racing NSW refuse to sign up to it....