Betfair On The Front Foot Over Sport Gambling Cheats
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Betfair on the front foot over sport gambling cheats
21 August 2011
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The leader of the international Olympic motion, Jacques Rogge, has called match-fixing and corruption as huge a threat to sporting integrity as doping.
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Unfortunately, sporting scandal and attempted jagged wagering coups have all frequently fit, as current football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have shown.
Those occasions, like last year's furore surrounding 3 Pakistan cricketers - subsequently offered bans - and the yohaig code bowling of "no balls" versus England at Lords, were linked to prohibited betting rings.
But for legitimate wagering companies, whether traditional High Street outlets or more recent online wagering organisations, these occasions all tend to be lumped together in the public's mind under the one heading of "betting".
"Much of what we have actually seen has been from the prohibited Asian markets - there is a big difference in between them and ourselves," states a senior detective at online gambling company Betfair.
"But it is everything about perceptions, and people just see the headings about betting without looking much deeper."
It is to avoid such ruined associations with misaligned gambling rings that firms such as Betfair go to great lengths to monitor the betting patterns on its site.
'Prevent, discover, investigate'
The firm is the world's significant wagering exchange - a set-up that permits bettors to bank on sporting occasions at odds set by other bettors.
Betfair makes its money by taking a commission from winning bets.
The company's headquarters overlooks the River Thames at Hammersmith, west London, and houses Betfair's business, technical, marketing, and user-experience teams.
But probably the most essential is the stability team of eight individuals, which uses computer system and analytical tools to prevent criminal activity being carried out in connection with sport and gaming, and to keep crooks off the Betfair site.
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"Our task is to avoid, discover, and investigate," says the Betfair detective, or "stability analyst", who asks not to be named because of his operate in dealing with criminal activity.
"We work carefully with the cops and other law-enforcement firms, gambling regulators, sports bodies, and organisations which promote accountable gaming."
The obstacles dealing with Betfair variety from possible match-fixing driven by illegal betting rings, to money-laundering, to individuals using taken or cloned charge card to bet with, to sportspeople utilizing inside information.
Betfair hosts odds on more than 40 sports and at any time there can be as many as 11,600 betting markets on the site.
Customers sign terms and conditions which enables Betfair to check closely their background and, in particular suspicious scenarios, to pass their details on to the appropriate sporting or legal authorities.
In addition it has also established an early-warning computer programme called BetMon, which governing bodies can utilize to see betting patterns (however not client details) on the Betfair site for their sports.
And Betfair prides itself on its audit path to help the cops or sports authorities in any examination.
"Records are kept of each login and bet, occasion, selection, stake, odds, revenue - if any - and approach of bet, as well as the yohaig code IP address of the yohaig code computer used to make the bet," says the Betfair analyst.
"Phone calls are also taped, too, for possible future reference."
Indeed, Betfair is happy of its capability to find suspicious wagering patterns - in among the most prominent cases it famously declined to settle wagers on a tennis match featuring Russian player Nikolay Davydenko in 2007.
The Russian retired from a game in the Poland Open, and this followed "irregular" betting patterns on his match.
The business, which has arrangements with a number of sporting bodies, consisting of the ATP and other tennis authorities - to whom it reported it worries in the Davydenko case.
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The player was consequently cleared of match-fixing by the ATP.
Sporting recommendations
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Often criminal gambling rings target gamers or match officials in an attempt to produce the wanted result of a sporting component.
Which is where people such as Simon Taylor, who has been the General Secretary of the Professional Players Federation (PPF) in the UK since 2006, come in.
He is also is head of policy at EU Athletes, the European federation of gamer associations.
In 2010, the PPF signed an agreement with the Remote Gambling Association and its members, including Betfair, to establish and deliver education programmes to players on sports betting and the possible risks.
This year the program will be provided in individual to 5,500 sportsmen and ladies in the UK.
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"Our research showed that 40% of footballers did not understand the guidelines about not betting on competitions they were associated with," he says, mentioning the importance of player info.
Mr Taylor stated that often those captured up in unlawful gaming pressures were young athletes, especially footballers, who could come under pressure from bad guys who befriend them.
Those at the other end of their professions are also a possible threat.
"You might have a veteran trying to find one last pay day, but we mention that you will never ever get a task later on as a coach or in sporting PR. That is not going to occur if your name is ruined," says Mr Taylor.
His organisation also offers guidance and support for sportsmen and women who may suffer from issue gambling.
'Memorandums of understanding'
were raised amongst many analysts and industry figures in March when Betfair stated it would be partially heading offshore.
By moving its betting licence from the UK to Gibraltar the company was no longer bound by any statutory obligation to notify Britain's Gambling Commission of any suspicious wagering.
However, Betfair states that not only is it managed by the Gibraltar authorities, it likewise has memorandums of understanding (MU) with numerous sporting bodies to notify them of suspicious activity.
This includes Mr Rogge's International Olympic Committee (IOC), which registered before the yohaig code Beijing 2008 Games and can request the identities of account holders who wager suspiciously.
"Our UK licence needed us to notify any suspicious details to the Gambling Commission," says Betfair's Susannah Gill.
"Technically we do not have to that any more, however we will continue to do this. That will continue indefinitely.
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"We understood back in the early days that details sharing is central to sports stability."
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Professional Players Federation
Gibraltar Remote Gaming