Sport is made for betting

Serie B is renowned as one of the dodgiest football leagues in the world. Any football punter with an eye on Europe will recall numerous end-of-season matches with arranged results - convenient draws played out after club presidents do favours for their mates as teams pull all the strings they can to avoid relegation. So the last thing you'd think was a good idea is a betting company becoming naming rights sponsor of the league..... Italy's Serie B rebranded as Serie bwin July 7 (Reuters) - Italy´s second tier Serie B has been rebranded Serie bwin after a two-year sponsorship deal was signed on Wednesday with Austria-based internet betting firm bwin. The deal, announced in a Serie B statement, will bring much-needed revenue to a division which has been under severe financial pressure for several years. Serie B will run its own affairs this season after the top-flight Serie A broke away from the two-division professional league.

It's nothing new but it's amazing how these things get swept under the carpet because "it's the Italian way". Peter Webb pointed out on his blog today, the Chievo vs Catania result was known before the match began. The majority of bookmakers took the match off the board, and those who did keep it up, had the draw odds-on which is ridiculous. The 1-1 draw traded as low as evens pre-match on Betfair, when it should usually trade around 7. The Italian culture is that friends should always help each other, and that there's no point in one party beating the other when they have nothing to gain from it. That's admirable with your mates, but it has no place in professional sport. If the sporting authorities had any balls at all, they would come down on it like a house of bricks. We're talking about a first-world country with a third-world set of ethics. Take a look at the two teams. Chievo were almost certainly clear of relegation, Catania could do with a fe...