Sport is made for betting

The North Korean women's football team has been kicked out of the next World Cup (2015) and all the qualifying events after five players tested positive for steroids at the recent women's World Cup in Germany. The team doctor, Jong Ae Nam, who claimed that she had used a "Chinese remedy" based on musk deer glands to aid players who had been struck by lightning, was handed a six-year ban from the game as the five players all tested positive for steroids. It really is la-la land over there....

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...

I got you, do-do-doo....... sang the legendary James Brown. England suffer deep embarrassment again. Not only losing to Bangladesh, but looking gone (traded at 10), taking quick wickets to trade 1.03, and then screwing it up! Great death bowling from James Anderson - from Cricinfo Just to add to the tension it's batting Powerplay time. Fielders have to come in 33 needed from 30. Bangladesh have it all to do. Prayers from the crowd... 45.1 Anderson to Mahmudullah, 5 wides, ...are answered here! Heady stuff for the Bangladeshis as Anderson spears this down the leg side, off it went past Prior and skimmed away for five wides! 45.1 Anderson to Mahmudullah, 1 run, down the leg side again, Mahmudullah clips classily to deep square. What a better option he is than Ashraful 45.2 Anderson to Shafiul Islam, 1 run, push and go from Shafiul! Very smart, just sat back, dropped it to mid-off and hared down the other end. The single is greeted with jumping ovations from the crowd 45.3 A...

There's not much left to say on the farce that was the World Cup bidding process. We know they are as bent as a three pound note, so why pander to them and waste millions in doing so? I don't have a problem with Russia winning the 2018 bid. The country has made rapid progress in hosting big events in recent years, there's plenty of money in local football so facilities are improving all the time and presentation was well organised. I'm quite excited by the prospect of going there. It's the Qatar one which defies all logic. Good luck to them if they can pull it off, but little regard seems to have been paid to fans when they are not inside the air-conditioned stadiums. Getting into a major event stadium can often take over an hour, and in 50C, that's potentially lethal. Are they going to build 200 hotels to accommodate and provide liquid refreshment for foreign fans? Will there be a market for hotel boats moored 2km offshore where all the alcohol is served? And...

Is anyone actually surprised that there are stories in the press today about FIFA Executive Committee members, the guys who vote on the venues for the World Cup, are taking bribes to secure their votes for World Cup bids? Two members, named as a member from Nigeria and the President of Oceania Football Federation, have been caught out by a newspaper investigation. Of course the money wasn't 'supposed' to be going directly to them, but to fund some domestic football project they'd take a nice fat bung out of along the way. Newspaper investigation reveals FIFA officials offered to sell World Cup votes Two FIFA officials have offered to sell their votes on which country will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, according to a newspaper report. The Sunday Times newspaper alleged that Amos Adamu, a Nigerian member of the world football governing body's executive committee, asked for $US800,000 ($A807,007) to endorse one of the bid candidates. It filmed him meeting with ...

Very disappointing start to the World Cup for Australia. Yes, we were dreaming beyond our ability about beating Germany, but a draw wasn't totally out of the question. Team selection was a little puzzling, with Kennedy left out and Cahill & Garcia thrown up front, against two huge centre-backs... and then virtually all our attacks were in the air. I know Cahill has played up front for Everton, but that was with decent creativity behind him. Kewell obviously isn't fit, we knew before the match he was unlikely to play. That one decent chance in the first few minutes might have changed the game if it had gone in, but after that, we were wholeheartedly thrashed. Germany looked very good, with several fresh faces not seen at this level before. Ozil, apart from his ridiculous dive which rightfully got carded, looked very dangerous and four of the five strikers bagged goals. If they haven't peaked too early, they will be right in the mix for the final. Our defence looked old a...

During the World Cup, I have been invited to blog for the France24 website. I'll be talking about the different angles of betting, the emotional rollercoaster of cheering for Australia in a sport which doesn't even rank in the top three codes of football in my home country and any controversies that come up - like the demand for video technology at the elite level of the sport. You can read my opening post here .

As the French government is finally about to push the button to permit online wagering in France and its territories, supposedly in time for the World Cup (gee, don't leave it too late), the big boys are doing the 'proper' thing according to their boards and getting out. William Hill and Betfair have both announced plans to cease doing business with French residents from June, while they consider their plans of whether to seek a local licence of their own, acquire one via a joint venture or continue with legal action. They won't be the only ones. But will the 'ceasing business' be genuine, or a token effort to appease lazy authorities like elsewhere in Europe?

If you didn't catch the end of the T20 World Cup semi-final last night between Australia and Pakistan, you should be kicking yourself. Pakistan batted brilliantly, tearing the Aussie bowling apart to score 6/191. The Aussies were always under the pump, losing Warner in the first over, Watson soon after, then Clarke, Haddin and D.Hussey for not a lot. Cue a fightback from Cameron White, but then he was out with 19 balls left, the team 53 runs short. Even I'd given up - it couldn't be done, Pakistan were bowling too tightly and the Aussies were struggling to find the boundaries. Then up stepped Michael Hussey with an inspired finish. 60 not off 24 balls.... Mike Hussey's last five balls faced... 4 6 6 4 6. Here's a summary of his innings from Cricinfo Some cricket traders copped a hiding, with over £380k matched on Pakistan at 1.01. The crowd, the commentators, the Australian team on the bench and the Pakistani players and entourage were simply gobsmacked by the perfo...

Considering how huge sports betting is in Asia, this is hardly a surprise, but Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, a religion which is vehemently anti-gambling. Underground betting in Malaysia is huge, I got to experience it a decade ago when I lived there briefly. Malaysian soccer legends support legalised betting Legends bet on legalised gambling ahead of World Cup Kuala Lumpur. Four Malaysian football legends on Wednesday threw their support behind a proposal to legalize sports betting ahead of this year’s World Cup finals in South Africa. The former players said legalizing sports wagers would reduce rampant illegal betting and match-fixing, but some also warned it could encourage people to go into debt. Last month the New Straits Times newspaper said sports betting might be legalized in time for the World Cup, which will be held from June 11-July 11. It said the Berjaya Group, a major Malaysian conglomerate with holdings ranging from lottery to casino operations, was seekin...

Betfair have hired a Morgan Stanley director as head of strategy as the IPO gets closer. For them, the best thing that can happen this year is a World Cup with all the favourites winning, bookies taking a hiding and Betfair just laughing all the way to the bank. But can they have all the prospectus documents ready in time for a float this year, if they wait that long? This isn't the first float-related hire they've had, they have been making them since 2005 and the media still haven't tired of predicting when it will happen. Just get it over with.... Betfair IPO moves closer with Morgan Stanley director hire Sportingbet are stepping up to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from the Alternative Index Market (AIM) next month, a move showing they really have graduated to mixing it with the big boys. Their financial reports are quite interesting. Unlike the British retail bookies who were moaning about all the favourites winning and no draws in the early part of the Premier League...