It cannot have come as a surprise to most sports fans to hear that the Big Bash League has come under scrutiny due to the amount of betting activity taking place on this format of the game of cricket. This news broke on the same day that a man was arrested at the Australian Open tennis and charged with “one count of engaging in conduct that would corrupt a betting outcome.”
According to figures published in the Courier Mail newspaper betting giant Betfair has had $575million worth of best on 22 Big Bash League games. Apparently betting companies globally have taken $30million in best on this year’s T20 competition.
The concern centres around those betting in “Live markets,” from seats inside the grounds where they get a several second edge over those betting at home, due to the delay in the pictures being transmitted. Live betting odds fluctuate rapidly with the fall of a wicket, or a bowler being tonked in one over. So those at the ground have an advantage over the armchair punters.
Cricket Australia has claimed that anti-corruption measures have been put in place but the number of bets placed this year is up by 50% on last year, and questions are being asked if these measures have kept pace with the betting.
Betting companies have become synonymous with sport in recent years, you cannot watch a game without having the odds rammed down your throat pre-match or even during the broadcast by commentators, by visuals running across the screen or during the advertising breaks. No doubt these companies pay the top dollar and the TV stations need that revenue to be able to pay off the cost of the rights to broadcast each sporting event, but one thing is clear the betting companies are well ahead in terms of their returns.
The signs were there a long time ago as to whether players were being asked to influence betting results, and with figures such as these it is only likely to get worse. The saddest thing to come out of the rise of betting in sport is when you hear Children telling you the odds on certain facets of a game yet being unable to name all of the players taking part.
Time will tell how long sport can afford to allow so many variations of bet to be placed, mobile phone technology would appear to be ahead of the game and it would be sad to see sport suffer because of one of its sponsors.
