Something must be done to curb the rapidly growing obsession with gambling on sport. Clearly, it is ruining the games we love. The cricket World Cup is the latest and most extreme example of why betting on anything and everything to do with sport is potentially disastrous.
If the murder of Bob Woolmer is proven to be linked to match-fixing, surely it must be the last straw in a long list of devastating effects that gambling has had.
Match-fixing is a crisis in cricket. The days of Hansie Cronje’s tearful admissions about taking money to arrange results are long gone. Yet, the smoke seems to have only thickened. Today, people anywhere on the planet can bet on just about anything within a particular match. A person in London can bet on Jacques Kallis bowling a wide in his 6th over. Someone in Auckland can lay $1000 on England to score less than 243. Another gambler can bet on Chris Gayle getting caught out. It’s known as `spread betting’ and provides so much scope for gambling that it’s scary.
But it’s not just cricket that is under threat.
Rugby league is another sport whose love affair with the punt is incongruent with the sport’s aims. Players cannot bet on games, yet the NRL has taken on a massive sponsorship deal with a huge betting company. What kind of a message does this send to the players and supporters? What it says is ‘We don’t condone the activity – but we’ll use the proceeds from it’. This is ludicrous!
Souths player Joe Williams said last week that he was glad he scored the game’s first try last weekend because his mother had placed a bet on it. What was stopping Williams from asking his mother to place the bet for him? What was stopping Williams’ teammates from making sure he had the ball in his hands to place over the line? What was stopping the opposition from allowing Williams to score first? And so on.
The obsession with gambling has moved on a long way from the days when naive Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were forced to admit giving a bookmaker team information before a match. Betting has infiltrated every sport on the planet and is causing suspicion, heartache and, possibly now, a high-profile murder. In the meantime the entire spirit of sport is being eroded. This has to stop.
What’s your best bet? For great odds on all your favourite sports check out PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
Olympic swimming legend and Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins has warned that "someone will die" if a multi-sport event that allows athletes to…
In 2015 when heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko, the fighter regarded by many as the ‘Greatest of all time’ in the sport,…
Join Australia's most vibrant online sports community and you have the chance to win $1000. The Roar is the perfect blend of sports reporting,…
Here is a review of our boxers who made a splash in the world rankings over the past year.
After intense debate at Roar HQ, we’ve selected the 23 most controversial moments for 2023.
