Betting exchanges and corrupt activity

[WhiteSoxSam]

I have enough friends tightly knit with racing who tell me about a few hardy souls making a good few quid from laying horses who are dead as doornails. It might be rumour, it might be true. I don't know. Seeing thousands of markets over the years on Betfair I think it is fair to assume that there is a fairly decent level of corruption inherent and active on exchanges. You only have to see how some horses are taken on and how they perform.

It is a free for all. Have a look at this article below. It is about that infamous match involving Davydenko in Poland. The one where despite being a set up punters on Betfair were still backing the other bloke at less than evens.

Davydenko pulled out of the match in the 3rd set. Many online bookmakers and so on had changed the rules so that at least one set had to be played as a reszult of getting stung by rorts before, prior to this match.

One Rusky averaged $800 on his tennis bets, yet had over $1/4 million on Davydenkos opponent.

It is so obvious that Davydenko was dead, and with hard evidence on the punting yet nothing has happened. At least the punters didn't get paid out. How many other matches did they though?

Imagine how much more difficult it is to prove in racing?

Betfair is a free for all and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tenn ... 07744.html

[Dawn]

In the case of Davydenko, and other suspected tennis matches/players, is Betfair the problem, or the tennis authorities who are too scared to do anything about it?

Read the other article in the Independent about the Labadze match. The ATP basically wanted nothing to do with the court case

At least Betfair can produce an audit trail of money. No other book will do that.

[Plastered]

Different scenarios.

As punters we all know Davy was dead and so do the authorities. But with international borders the law is a very difficult thing to get around so there was never going to be any way to prove the case.

The trace on racing bets through Betfair may not guarantee no wrong-doing but at least the authorities have a much better chance of getting to the bottom of who's laying and have a jurisdictional advantage in the main as compared with an international sport.

I must agree that it seems extraordinary that sometimes I get matched on a horse I'm asking say 12 for on Betfair when the books are betting only 5 or 6 and mostly they run nearer last than first. But I've also experienced the rare happy surprise on these. Dunno what it means

[zakazano1]

WSS - it's always Betfair's fault, there was no such thing as corruption in sport or racing before exchanges came along. It's the same rubbish that the bookies have put out since 2000 when they started and gave the bookies a right kick up the arse.

A crook taking out $1000 on a horse that can't win will probably get away with it... just like a bloke taking $5 out of the till on every shift... but greed will always catch them out in the long run.

There have been more people warned off by the Jockey Club in the UK since Betfair teamed up with them on integrity than in total in the previous history of British racing - there was no way to catch them unless they were completely stupid. There have been some classic cases of bookies knowing in the past but just using the info themselves for their own gain. They've been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era of corporate and social responsibility where they have to report these things.

Racing is the 'easiest' of all the sports to police because it is set up for betting, has its own authorities plus the criminal authorities on top of that. And most of all, it's all done in one country - same laws, same powers to seize information etc. But - with lawsuits these days, unless everything is crystal clear, the case won't go through. How Kieran Fallon got off is still beyond me, but karma got him soon after anyway. But UK stewarding is comical at best. Hong Kong or Australia it isn't.

Tennis has no chance - you can't have the same laws in every country. In most of eastern Europe, match-fixing or sports fraud would get you a mix sentence of $5000 or six months in jail. Hardly a deterrent if you are trying to win $50k.

So imagine the Davydenko scenario - match in Poland, his mobile phone is probably registered in Russia, the bets were made via a British company and the ATP, an American body, had flimsy regulations about it at that time. Chance of prosecution - sweet FA.

Just look at the Accrington Stanley v Bury fixed match in 2008 - they have banned four players from the losing side for betting against their own team, yet still can't prove match-fixing!!

Listen to this BBC Radio 4 report about corruption in sport - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00kvpzr - there's even a brief cameo from me in there when in moves onto tennis.


Following the market is more important than ever - and when the evidence is there, you're mad not to use it...

The back page of the Racing Post today has a lot more on the Hernandez-Koellerer match, and dispels some of the stuff in the Independent article - Hills say they turned it off after sustained one-way action, StanJames said Koellerer is on their banned list - won't price up any of his R1 matches

[WhiteSoxSam]

So then Zak - what do you say about Melzer being matched at 1.12 BEFORE the match to win 3-0?

Corruption always existed before Betting Exchanges, it is simply now much easier to perpetrate than ever before

[Gaza]

At least with the exchanges the "corruption" is there for all to see and thus it gets a lot more publicity. So the 'corruption" is no longer hidden. Must be a good thing in the long run for the visibility.

[Santo]

You could (and people did) bet 3-0 down to 1.12 at the bookies too, Betfair was not a prerequisite.

As far as I'm aware only Betfair and 1 book reported it, others were quoted as saying they saw nothing suspicious in UK media.

[zakazano1]

So then Zak - what do you say about Melzer being matched at 1.12 BEFORE the match to win 3-0?

Corruption always existed before Betting Exchanges, it is simply now much easier to perpetrate than ever before

That's like saying roads are to blame for car accidents. At least you could see the patterns. Every other bookie took bets on it as well - why aren't they to blame?

That match wasn't corrupt - word was out the bloke was injured and the fav was already too short to back straight out. Exchange betting just lets all the arbers close out on plunges so they don't care if it wins or loses. Just like betting on the tote - you always could lay a loser at the TAB, you just have to cop 16% minimum takeout and fiddle with all the other options, it never couldn't be done...

[zakazano1]

At least with the exchanges the "corruption" is there for all to see and thus it gets a lot more publicity. So the 'corruption" is no longer hidden. Must be a good thing in the long run for the visibility.

Exposure is the best thing to clean out the bad stuff. Sweeping it all under the carpet, as has been done for many yrs with doping in sport, off-field scandals in football codes, MPs expenses etc, just keeps it going on forever. Put a spotlight on it, put procedures in place to stop it, have some high-profile perpetrators and then the game becomes all the better for it.

[WhiteSoxSam]

One of the biggest crooks who uses Betfair as his little goldmine is about to get disqualified for life.

Will it stop his dead'uns?

[zakazano1]

who/where are we talking about? and were these 'dead'uns' around before betting exchanges?

[WhiteSoxSam]

answer to the 2nd part is yes of course, but it has simply become more prolific as it is so easy to do.

As for the first part: time will reveal all. It is a shame they cannot get in and check out his betting exchange accounts because they would open a silo of worms.

[jfc++]

answer to the 2nd part is yes of course, but it has simply become more prolific as it is so easy to do.

As for the first part: time will reveal all. It is a shame they cannot get in and check out his betting exchange accounts because they would open a silo of worms.

Perhaps this reported (~halfway-through-page) Stewards' enquiry into certain Betfair transactions is relevant?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/horser ... 41455.html

[WhiteSoxSam]

answer to the 2nd part is yes of course, but it has simply become more prolific as it is so easy to do.

As for the first part: time will reveal all. It is a shame they cannot get in and check out his betting exchange accounts because they would open a silo of worms.

Has that silo been opened in the last week I wonder?

[Dawn]

One of the biggest crooks who uses Betfair as his little goldmine is about to get disqualified for life.

Will it stop his dead'uns?

It's been 6 months. Any clues?