“Sports that embrace sports betting are like heavy smokers. Yes, it is pleasurable at first and a seductive source of revenue. Drag it down deep, there you go, and blow rings at the wowsers that fear for you.”
“But the longer it goes and the more heavily it is inhaled, the more likely it will turn cancerous. Attacking first at the fringes, minor players agreeing to do little things – until it metastases to the point of Test results that tell the tale and it is obvious to all that the very soul of the sport is now malignant.”
This ominous message from Peter Fitzsimons is an unfortunate but accurate depiction of the current Australian sporting landscape.
Whether you are a regular Saturday punter, partial to a multi bet on the footy, or a once a year Melbourne cup specialist, the growth of sports betting in Australia has been there for all to see, in more ways than one.
With this growth has come the unfortunate by product of corruption and illegal betting that is threatening the very integrity of our sports. Cases have been popping up across the country in recent times, from the much publicised Ryan Tandy case, to Collingwood footballers betting on their own match, and even Essendon assistant coach Dean Wallis found guilty of betting on games.
The ever growing list of incidents has not been ignored however, with Federal Minister for Sport Mark Arbib a key player in stamping out corruption and illegal betting.
Senator Arbib has established an anti-corruption commission announcing an agreement to establish a “betting integrity group” with representatives from each sporting body, in an attempt to tackle the corruption.
With these safety nets now in place, and the government, sporting bodies and betting agencies all monitoring potential corruption and illegal betting on games, surely it is safe to take your kids down to Centrebet Stadium in Penrith to watch the Panthers take on the Centrebet Manly Sea Eagles?
No, wait. See, it’s here that the real problem lies.
The real elephant in the room is not the availability of exotic bet options, nor the billions of dollars traded each year on foreign illegal betting markets.
The real issue is the relationship that our sporting bodies now have with these major bookmakers and betting agencies, and the affect it will have on the next generation.
The AFL reportedly has a deal worth estimated $2 million a year with Betfair and the TAB. Within the clauses of these deals, the betting agencies aggressively outline the way in which their product is to be exposed, and with this comes the regular betting updates from commentators, the odds fixed directly under the score on scoreboards at grounds, and the display of odds on our TV screens in full view of impressionable kids and teenagers.
The next generation will reach the legal betting age having been so exposed to these odds and relentless advertisements that a Betfair or TAB account will soon be as common as a NAB or ANZ account.
Senator Nick Xenophon echoed the sentiments of Fitzsimons: “The almost symbiotic link between sport and sports betting agencies will turn out to be a cancer on our sports.”
The Productivity Commission said that in 2010, 424,000 online sports wagering accounts were active in Australia, up a staggering 73 percent on 2006 figures.
The alarms surrounding this increase will ultimately fall on deaf ears though, with the boards at clubs across the country now looking at betting agencies as a major source of income.
Scott Penn, chairman of the Manly Sea Eagles, has openly embraced the betting agencies as a means to a viable financial future, signing a $1 million dollar deal with Centrebet. He said that “Sports betting agencies will ultimately become the second largest revenue earner to television rights.”
We only have to rewind the clock 20 years, and as we sat at the cricket all around the country we were surrounded by advertisements for Benson and Hedges on each boundary. We watched as Tina Turner sang ‘Simply the Best’ at the grand final of the Winfield Cup. 20 years on we are now surrounded by, and inundated with, advertisements for Betfair, Centrebet, Sportingbet, and TAB at these events.
Surely the government can show some initiative and realise these toxic advertisements will have just as serious repercussions on our society, before it is too late.
What are the odds on an expanded new generation of problem gamblers?
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Licorice, Gambling is like Prostitution, they have both been around forever and they will always be. It is pointless outlawing or even minimising gambling on sport as they will just go underground and the valuable punters money will go offshore where over 500 bookies will be happy to accept Aussie dollars. The challenge for governments and our major sports bodies is to professionally embrace it, monitor it, and ensure they financially rewarded for using their IP. They are all a long way from getting it right.
mushi
Guest
Ah I get it so we are more likely to be able to regulate them because they now pay us lots of money to spruik their product incessantly! You know what we should let Ice manufacturers pay the policeand wa la problem solved
Boomshanka
Guest
It even goes further back than the 50's and in other many other sports. In 1910, Carlton (VFL) players Lang and Fraser were found guilty of match fixing and banned for 99 games (or five years) after they were alleged to have accepted a bribe to play poorly.
Johnno
Guest
Sports gambling has been around since the start of sport basically one could use the phrase since the roman empire started, and now to the present time 2012. Jaceman good points about Jack Gibson, shows since after WW2 gambling has been involved in team sports in OZ, just back then we didn't have, internet and information age, so less people knew it was underground. Not anymore thanks to the internet and access to information gambling in sport is a mainstream issue, and all the other stuff with illegal betting by Indian and pakistani cricketers, have bought the issue to ahead. To make gambling illegal in sport would be like alcohol in the 1920's or with current drug laws on many drugs, it would just increase organise crime, and cost tax payer even more money on law enforcement. Let gambling be legal, maybe restrict gambling companies ability to show live betting odds at matches, but to make gambling in sport illegal would just increase organise crime, and society does not want that.
Hoy
Roar Guru
LIke this and agree a lot. At what point have line ups etc been regarded as so secret? Since people have taken bets on what coloured shoe laces old mate will wear. Cut the stupid bets, and just have win/loss. Dreaming, but the only way to stop the rot. As we witnessed with Pakistan cricket, all these odd little bets are very susceptible to manipulation. Who the hell in their right mind would bet on the third ball of the second over being a no ball? And if it came to that, what silly bookie takes that bet thinking I am going to win this? Wouldn't it occur to them that the fix was in?
Jaceman
Guest
Gambling on sports is hardly new. Some would say that bringing betting agencies in the tent improves the games ability to monitor it. Remember that history of RL documentary where Jack Gibson said that the 1963 NRL Grand Final result where he was a player was fixed and the Souths players in the 1955? GF saying that Lawler the ref threw the game for Wests to win in an upset...Illegal bookies at the time meant it was undercover but the Ryan Tandy case showed the mechanisms are in place for the betting agencies to sound alram bells...
apaway
Roar Guru
Good article, licorice, though I would contend that the availability of "exotic betting" is a very big factor in why sports' association with the legaiised gambling industry is a huge problem. When a Pakistani cricketer takes money for bowling a no-ball, the mindset is surely "I'm not throwing a game or affecting the result and I'm being paid more than I earn in a year so why not?" And then the fixers have their hooks in and it's very hard to get out. The broadcasting of gambling odds during sports events should be banned straight away. It annoys the hell out of me when commentators, whatever the code, whatever the medium, give the viewer/listener updated odds at half time and even during the course of a match.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Excellent article licoriceallsports You are spot on, why have sports finally broken their cigarette problem only to stick themselves with this one. And it is the creeping way it is insinuating itslef into everything on tv, half time with Munsie! Sickening
TomC
Guest
I was glad to see the MCG scoreboard didn't show any live odds on Boxing Day, so at least some sports are resisting the encroachment of gambling. I can't remember who it was, but I remember reading an excellent opinion piece about the suspension of Gold Coast defender Nathan Bock. Bock will miss the first two games of 2012 after telling a couple of mate and a family member that he was going to start the final game of last season in the forwardline. Those mates told a couple of other people, and a fair amount of money was plonked on him to kick the first goal (which he did). Bock came forward straight after the game to say what'd happened, and copped a fine and suspension. The point made in the article was, why shouldn't a footballer be allowed to tell his family and friends that he's going to play in the forwardline? Maybe the club wouldn't like him to give away tactics, but that's no business of the AFL's. There's no suggestion of Bock fixing a game, or playing worse, or harming the integrity of the sport in any way. The only people who suffer in that scenario are the idiot betting agencies who offer odds on insignificant things like who's going to kick the first goal. What responsibility do the AFL have to protect their interests? When the AFL take money from those same betting agencies, then hand out suspensions to players who quite innocently harm their business, it looks like a real conflict of interest, to me.