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Betfair on the front foot over sport gambling cheats
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21 August 2011
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The leader of the global Olympic motion, Jacques Rogge, has called match-fixing and corruption as big a threat to sporting stability as doping.
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Unfortunately, sporting scandal and tried jagged betting coups have all too typically fit, as recent football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have revealed.

Those events, like last year's furore surrounding 3 Pakistan cricketers - consequently given bans - and the bowling of "no balls" versus England at Lords, were connected to illegal gambling rings.

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

"Much of what we have actually seen has been from the unlawful Asian markets - there is a big distinction between them and ourselves," states a senior private investigator at online gambling company Betfair.

"But it is all about understandings, and individuals simply see the headlines about gambling without looking much deeper."

It is to avoid such ruined associations with crooked gaming rings that firms such as Betfair go to terrific lengths to keep track of the betting patterns on its website.

'Prevent, discover, investigate'

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

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

The company's headquarters overlooks the River Thames at Hammersmith, west London, and houses Betfair's corporate, technical, marketing, and user-experience groups.

But probably the most crucial is the stability group of 8 people, which utilizes computer and analytical tools to avoid criminal activity being carried out in connection with sport and gaming, and to keep criminals off the Betfair site.

"Our job is to avoid, detect, and examine," says the Betfair detective, or "integrity analyst", who asks not to be named due to the fact that of his operate in dealing with criminal activity.

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

The difficulties facing Betfair variety from prospective match-fixing driven by unlawful gaming rings, to money-laundering, to individuals using taken or cloned credit cards to wager with, to sportspeople utilizing details.

Betfair hosts chances on more than 40 sports and at any time there can be as many as 11,600 betting markets on the website.

Customers sign conditions which enables Betfair to examine closely their background and, in particular suspicious situations, to pass their information on to the appropriate sporting or legal authorities.

In addition it has actually also established an early-warning computer program called BetMon, which governing bodies can utilize to watch betting patterns (however not customer information) on the Betfair site for their sports.

And Betfair prides itself on its audit trail to help the police or sports authorities in any investigation.

"Records are kept of each login and bet, occasion, selection, stake, chances, profit - if any - and technique of bet, in addition to the IP address of the computer used to make the bet," states the Betfair analyst.

"Phone calls are likewise recorded, too, for possible future referral."

Indeed, Betfair takes pride in its capability to spot suspicious betting patterns - in among the most prominent cases it famously declined to settle wagers on a tennis match including Russian player Nikolay Davydenko in 2007.

The Russian retired from a game in the Poland Open, and this followed "irregular" wagering patterns on his match.

The business, which has arrangements with a number of sporting bodies, including the ATP and other tennis authorities - to whom it reported it worries in the Davydenko case.

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

Sporting advice

Often criminal betting rings target players or match authorities in an effort to make the preferred result of a sporting component.
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Which is where individuals such as Simon Taylor, who has actually been the General Secretary of the Professional Players Federation (PPF) in the UK because 2006, been available in.

He is likewise 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, including Betfair, to establish and provide education programmes to gamers on sports wagering and the potential risks.

This year the programme will be provided in individual to 5,500 sportspersons and ladies in the UK.

"Our research revealed that 40% of footballers did not understand the guidelines about not wagering on competitions they were associated with," he says, mentioning the value of player info.

Mr Taylor said that often those caught up in illegal gaming pressures were young professional athletes, particularly footballers, who could come under pressure from criminals who befriend them.

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

"You might have a veteran trying to find one last pay day, however we point out that you will never ever get a task later as a coach or in sporting PR. That is not going to take place if your name is messed up," says Mr Taylor.

His organisation also uses recommendations and assistance for sportspersons and ladies who might experience problem gaming.

'Memorandums of comprehending'

Eyebrows were raised among numerous commentators and market figures in March when Betfair said it would be partially heading offshore.

By moving its gaming licence from the UK to the firm was no longer bound by any statutory commitment to inform Britain's Gambling Commission of any suspicious wagering.

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

this promotion code includes Mr Rogge's International Olympic Committee (IOC), which signed up before the Beijing 2008 Games and can request the identities of account holders who bet suspiciously.

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

"Technically we do not need to that any more, however we will continue to do this promotion code. That will continue forever.

"We realised back in the early days that info sharing is main to sports integrity."

Betfair Corporate
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Professional Players Federation

Gibraltar Remote Gaming
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