Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

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Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport 2000-2001 season, it can be seen that a gambler betting with the operator Ladbrokes would have lost 11.13% of their bets (on average), compared with 6.1% in 2010-2011 75 . This rise in rate of return to players is also found among other operators. By increasing the rate of return to players, an operator does indeed reduce its own margins but can hope to attract more gamblers or at least retain its own clientele. This trend seems to be developing everywhere where the rate of return to players is not clearly governed by the law, in response to the easily accessible global competition (and easily comparable offerings) on the Internet. New, increasingly attractive, types of bet Thanks to the expansion of the Internet and the increase in the overall volume of bets, operators have been able to offer new types of bet and other innovations that have themselves contributed to the attractiveness of betting and the increase in volumes. Operators have therefore progressively refined their offering and now offer the opportunity of betting on certain details or different phases of a match: for example the number of cards, number of corners, identity of goal scorers, first throw-in, winner of a certain phase of the game, etc. Many operators routinely quote odds for at least 30 and up to 70 or more types of wages on a single match. The Internet has also enabled the development of live betting , in other words the possibility of betting during the course of a match. Gamblers can follow a match live on the Internet and bet online in real time, depending on how the match develops. Betting operators employ odds setters , who simultaneously follow the match and the betting on it, and alter the odds according to events during the match (goals, ball possession, injuries etc.) and the bets placed. The company Sportradar currently estimates that in tennis, 90% of bets are placed live during a match, and 70% in football 76 . In parallel, sports betting has extended to a wide range of competitions and now covers the whole of professional sport and even some amateur sport. The largest sports betting sites - such as sbobet and bet365 - offer bets, for example, on the Bulgarian Under-19 Football Championship, Turkish Third Division Football matches, darts competitions, ski jumping, junior tennis tournaments etc. Technically, sports betting is possible at any time, 24/7. The Internet has also enabled the development of a new method of betting, “exchange betting”. A number of operators have introduced this model, but in reality, British company Betfair holds a quasi-monopoly in this field. It does not set odds, allowing gamblers to make bets between themselves (an individual proposes an outcome X, and then needs a counter-gambler prepared to bet on the non-achievement of outcome X). Betfair charges only a small uniform commission on all bets, allowing gamblers the opportunity to recover about 97% of their initial stakes (rate of return to players), and their best clients, even more. By way of comparison, the rate of return to players in France is set by the law and may not exceed 85% of the stakes. The study of the impact of the Internet on the betting market has helped to identify the main features of the market today: increasing average rates of return to players, growth in the number of bets recorded and the extension of betting to more and more competitions and modes of betting. 75 This rise in the rate of return to players is all the greater if gamblers compare operators and choose the best odds. 76 Interview with Sportradar, Richmond-on-Thames, 1 September 2011 38
Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport 2. Are these changes undermining the integrity of sport? Betting on match details: a specific risk? We touched on this earlier: it is easier to corrupt a detail of a match for two reasons: � on the one hand it can involve a single person (player, goal keeper or referee) � on the other hand it does not necessarily have an effect on the final match result Certain recent affairs illustrate the reality of the risk: rugby in Australia (December 2010: first penalty of a match rigged), football in Scotland (October 2011: suspicion of rigging the first card of the match 77 ), cricket in England (August 2010: rigged by the bowling of three no-balls at agreed points in the match). The risk of match fixing is therefore genuine. Operators seem to be aware of this however, and do not generally accept large bets on this type of match detail. The market for this type of bet is not seen as sufficiently liquid either (too few people bet on such bets). Serious operators, not wanting to take excessive risks, will only very rarely accept large bets in these markets. The main types of bet used nowadays for betting linked to corruption in sport generally relate to: � final and half-time results � the number of goals scored during a match (more than two goals, less than three goals for example) � bets on the goal difference between two teams � and what is known as the Asian handicap, i.e. one of the teams, the favourite, is awarded a handicap, for example a half-goal in a football match, which balances the game and makes the odds more attractive (half points are often used to eliminate the possibility of a drawn match). Risks connected with live and exchange betting Live bets on the Internet are likely to pose a specific risk because where a certain phase of a game is rigged, it is possible to take advantage of variations in the odds and thereby be assured of winning irrespective of the outcome of the game. For example, with exchange betting, if one knows that such-and-such a tennis player (the favourite) will lose the first set, one can bet against them before the match, then at the end of the first set take advantage of the improvement in the odds (provoked by their loss of the first set) to bet in their favour. Adding the two bets together results in a situation where the gambler is assured of winning money irrespective of the final result of the match (David Forrest 2008). The risk is obvious because the sportsperson has been asked to lose just the first set, and not the whole match, which they can still hope to win (particularly if they are the favourite and therefore supposed to be the stronger player). 77 http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/06/wayne-rooney-father-alleged-betting-scam 39
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