Australian Operators Call for Tighter Regulation on Sportsbetting

Tuesday 31 August, 2010 17:07

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Cricket officials are struggling to cope with the latest matchfixing scandal to rock the sport, this time involving a scam among Pakistani players in matches played in Sydney and London.

And while it may be tempting to call for a total ban on betting in order to preserve the integrity of the sport, Australian gambling operators are calling for the government to regulate sportsbetting better, instead of prohibiting it outright.

Cricket officials will readily admit that betting is problematic for the sport, however there is no denying that one cannot survive without the other.

Betting is an integral part of cricket in Australia, ranging from gambling odds woven in by sports presenters, to ads promoting sportsbetting sites during games.

Punters not only bet on the outcome of the cricket match - they also bet on everything else before, during and after the match.

"Online wagering has grown enormously over the last five to ten years and there are different markets for customers to bet on these days," said a spokesman for Betfair Australia, Hugh Taggart.

"It isn't just a match odds market, but all markets that are offered by regulated bookmakers should be approved by that sports body so that they have the best possible information and the best ability to govern and police their sport," he added.

Taggart said that his company had not noticed any suspicious wagering patterns during the controversial test match. "If we did, we are bound to report that activity to the ICC," he added.

Analysts don't believe that authorities will ban betting on cricket outright due to the latest scandal.

"Any kind of poor media speculation about the gambling doesn't do the industry any good," said Taggart. "That said, I don't think prohibition is the right way to go about tackling gambling."

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