Times Online UK February 20, 2006
Betfair ready to open its books for Olympics By Steven Downes, Times Online Business Editor
"It would be ludicrous to think the law could prohibit betting on the Olympics"
The market leader in international online betting exchanges has offered sports officials access to commercially confidential information that could help to determine whether betting rings have been trying to fix the outcome of events at the Olympic Games.
Betfair said today: "The International Olympic Committee, were it to agree to sign a memorandum of understanding with us, would be able to access otherwise confidential information if they had any doubts about the validity of an event or performance in relation to a suspect result following what may have been suspicious betting patterns."
With betting on the Turin Winter Olympics being openly permitted in Italy, and volumes of bets on the Games reaching record levels around the world, Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, expressed his concern last week. "The rapid growth of sports betting commands that we be vigilant," he said.
Mr Rogge said that betting "must not be allowed to undermine the integrity of the Games".
It is possible that Rogge`s concerns may well have been heightened by an ongoing corruption scandal in football in his own country, Belgium. There, six players and coaches have been sacked by clubs, including first division Anderlecht and Mouscron, after they were put under official investigation for match-fixing with links to a Chinese gambling syndicate.
In Britain, Lord Tom Pendry, the former Labour shadow sports minister, also tried to introduce an amendment to the 2012 Olympics Bill to better control sports betting.
He called for the UK`s new Gambling Commission "to issue a code to all licensed bookmakers restricting or even preventing the bets that they could make".
Graham Sharpe, of bookmakers William Hill, dismissed Lord Pendry`s call. "It would be ludicrous to think the law could prohibit betting on the Olympics," he said.
And Stephen Burn, spokesman for Betfair, also raised questions about the practicality of Lord Pendry`s proposals. "People have been betting on the Olympics since the Games began," Mr Burn said, "The choice the IOC faces is a simple one: it can work with properly regulated, legitimate betting businesses, like our own, or it can turn its back on us and look down on the industry with some out-dated air of moral indignation.
"What it can`t do is stop people punting on its events because there will always be unscrupulous and illegal operators looking to exploit vulnerable, corrupt or greedy athletes and punters."
According to Betfair, "The average run of the mill horse race on a wet weekday in winter will see more than £1 million matched. An average Premiership football game would see something like £5 million matched and the biggest single traded event on record for us was the fifth Ashes test when £37 million was matched.
"In comparison, even the highest profile Olympic event would only rarely see £1 million matched."
A significant trend over the past five years has been the rapid rise of online betting outlets, both for traditional, fixed odds bookmakers - such as Hills, Ladbrokes and Corals - who set the odds for bets and lay the risks themselves, and the new phenomenon of betting exchanges, such as Betfair, where individuals go online and can accept bets from others through the internet exchange.
Such online betting options are proving impossible to legislate against within national boundaries: in the United States it is broadly illegal to gamble at all except at licensed casinos or race tracks. Yet online American gamblers continue to flaunt state and federal anti-gambling laws.
Such challenges are only likely to get worse for the legislators. This week, computer giant MSN announced a U-turn in policy by reopening its MSN Gambling channel, in conjunction with Betfair.
Yet it is may be the online gambling firms that offer sports federations their best hopes of deterring illegal betting rings. In Belgium, the judicial authorities launched their probe into match-fixing after officials noted unusually high amounts of money being bet on matches in November. They got their evidence from Betfair, which found that $720,000 was wagered on La Louviere`s surprise 3-1 win over Sint Truiden in October, around 20 times more than the usual stake on top-ranked clubs.
Thus the company`s offer to assist Olympic organisers in observing and regulating betting markets.
"We campaign for regulation and clean sport because our customers will only trade on events they have confidence in," Mr Burn said.
"The modern methods of betting we`ve pioneered allow for all transactions to be tracked and the transparency and openness of our business model is something sporting bodies like the English FA and Uefa have already utilised to their benefit."
