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Australia’s biggest sports are concerned about aggressive, “in your face” betting advertising, but say they are powerless to stop it.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say some of that more aggressive ‘bet now’ advertising is concerning us,” NRL chief executive David Gallop told a seminar in Sydney involving leaders of the four football codes and cricket.
“We would prefer to see that in a less aggressive mode.
“But the difficulty is the media outlets are going to take that advertising anyway, so the sports need to be in control of it.”
“I agree with David,” said AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.
“If it’s in your face at the football, it can be really off-putting.
“But let’s not delude ourselves; don’t just concentrate this on the sports.
“The newspapers are littered with advertising about sports betting,” he said, adding the issue had to be tackled “across the board”.
Rugby’s John O’Neill said once a sport sold its broadcast rights, broadcasters then earned their revenue by selling advertising.
“We certainly do express a view if it’s in your face and it’s over the top,” he said, “but that’s the level of influence.”
Sports were content providers, he said.
NRL boss Gallop said many fans enjoyed the gambling aspect of following sport, but “all of us are concerned about exotic betting”.
He said the NRL would not have dealt so readily with the case before the courts involving last year’s Bulldogs-Cowboys NRL match, if it did not have access to information on irregular gambling through its commercial relationship with betting agencies.
He called for Victorian laws on the issue to be enacted nationally.
Sports bosses also called for help to combat illegal betting and match-fixing.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the success of sport was built on trust between fans and the sports.
“They need to know this is a real contest, this is the real thing,” he said.
“If there is any question or taint around that, then the integrity and value of the sport is significantly downgraded.
“Cricket has had its issues over the past decade or two.
“It has worked its way through them, but they have come back to raise their ugly head in the past 12 months.
“We can’t be complacent about the risk of corruption in any of our sports.
“But the likelihood of corruption is going to be diminished if government can help us to take a stronger stand.
“We are very keen on seeing the government move forward with legislation.”
Federal Sports Minister Mark Arbib has backed moves to impose jail terms of up to 10 years for match-fixers and will raise the issue again with state sports ministers in June.
Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates has called for a national sports betting agency, similar to the anti-doping agency, with powers to publicly “name and shame” offenders.
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