Betfair on the front foot over sport betting cheats

21 August 2011

The leader of the worldwide 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 misaligned betting coups have all too typically gone together, as recent football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have shown.

Those occasions, like in 2015's furore surrounding three Pakistan cricketers - subsequently given bans - and the bowling of "no balls" against England at Lords, were connected to illegal gaming rings.

But for legitimate wagering companies, whether traditional High Street outlets or more current online wagering organisations, these events all tend to be lumped together in the general public's mind under the one heading of "betting".

"Much of what we have actually seen has actually been from the prohibited Asian markets - there is a substantial difference between them and ourselves," states a senior investigator at online betting firm Betfair.

"But it is all about perceptions, and people just see the yohaig code headings about betting without looking deeper."

It is to prevent such damaged associations with jagged gambling rings that firms such as Betfair go to fantastic lengths to monitor the on its site.

'Prevent, find, examine'

The company is the world's major betting exchange - a set-up that permits bettors to bet on sporting occasions at chances set by other gamblers.

Betfair makes its money by taking a commission from winning bets.

The firm's head office neglects the River Thames at Hammersmith, west London, and homes Betfair's business, technical, marketing, and user-experience groups.

But probably the most essential is the integrity team of 8 individuals, which uses computer and analytical tools to avoid criminal activity being conducted in connection with sport and gaming, and to keep lawbreakers off the Betfair site.

"Our task is to prevent, discover, and examine," says the Betfair private investigator, or "integrity expert", who asks not to be named since of his operate in dealing with criminal activity.

"We work closely with the police and other law-enforcement firms, gambling regulators, sports bodies, and organisations which promote accountable betting."

The obstacles dealing with Betfair range from prospective match-fixing driven by unlawful gaming rings, to money-laundering, to individuals using taken or cloned charge card to bet with, to sportspeople using details.
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Betfair hosts chances on more than 40 sports and at any time there can be as lots of as 11,600 wagering markets on the site.

Customers sign terms which allows Betfair to check closely their background and, in specific suspicious circumstances, to pass their details on to the appropriate sporting or legal authorities.

In addition it has actually also developed an early-warning computer system program called BetMon, which governing bodies can use to watch wagering patterns (however not customer details) on the Betfair site for their sports.

And Betfair prides itself on its audit path to help the police or sports authorities in any examination.
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"Records are kept of each login and bet, occasion, selection, stake, odds, earnings - if any - and method of bet, in addition to the IP address of the computer used to make the bet," says the Betfair analyst.

"Phone calls are likewise tape-recorded, too, for possible future referral."
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Indeed, Betfair takes pride in its ability to find suspicious wagering patterns - in one of the most prominent cases it famously declined to settle wagers on a tennis match including Russian gamer Nikolay Davydenko in 2007.
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The Russian retired from a video game in the Poland Open, and this promotion code came after "irregular" wagering patterns on his match.
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The company, which has contracts with a number of sporting bodies, consisting of the ATP and other tennis authorities - to whom it reported it worries in the Davydenko case.

The gamer was consequently cleared of match-fixing by the ATP.

Sporting recommendations

Often criminal betting rings target gamers or match authorities in an attempt to make the desired result of a sporting component.

Which is where individuals such as Simon Taylor, who has actually been the General Secretary of the Professional Players Federation (PPF) in the UK given that 2006, been available in.

He is also is head of policy at EU Athletes, the European federation of player associations.

In 2010, the PPF signed a contract with the Remote Gambling Association and its members, consisting of Betfair, to develop and deliver education programs to gamers on sports wagering and the potential mistakes.
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this promotion code year the programme will be delivered personally to 5,500 sportsmen and females in the UK.

"Our research showed that 40% of footballers did not know the guidelines about not banking on competitors they were associated with," he says, explaining the significance of player information.

Mr Taylor stated that typically those caught up in prohibited betting pressures were young athletes, particularly footballers, who might come under pressure from bad guys who befriend them.

Those at the other end of their careers are likewise a potential threat.

"You may have a veteran searching for one last pay day, however we mention that you will never ever get a job later on as a coach or in sporting PR. That is not going to take place if your name is ruined," says Mr Taylor.

His organisation likewise provides advice and assistance for sportspersons and ladies who might struggle with problem betting.

'Memorandums of understanding'

Eyebrows were raised among many commentators and market 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 responsibility to inform Britain's Gambling Commission of any suspicious betting.

However, Betfair states that not only is it managed by the Gibraltar authorities, it also has memorandums of understanding (MU) with various sporting bodies to notify them of suspicious activity.

This consists of Mr Rogge's International Olympic Committee (IOC), which registered before the Beijing 2008 Games and can ask for the identities of account holders who bet suspiciously.

"Our UK licence required us to inform any suspicious info to the Gambling Commission," says Betfair's Susannah Gill.

"Technically we do not need to that anymore, but we will continue to do this. That will continue indefinitely.

"We understood back in the early days that info sharing is main to sports stability."

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