Betfair on the front foot over sport betting cheats
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21 August 2011
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The leader of the international Olympic motion, Jacques Rogge, has actually called match-fixing and corruption as big a danger to sporting stability as doping.

Unfortunately, sporting scandal and tried jagged wagering coups have all too typically fit, as recent football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have actually shown.
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Those events, like in 2015's furore surrounding 3 Pakistan cricketers - subsequently given bans - and the bowling of "no balls" versus England at Lords, were linked to prohibited betting rings.

But for legitimate wagering firms, whether conventional High Street outlets or more current online betting organisations, these events 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 actually been from the prohibited Asian markets - there is a substantial distinction between them and ourselves," states a senior detective at online gambling company Betfair.

"But it is all about perceptions, and people just see the headlines about betting without looking deeper."
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It is to avoid such ruined associations with crooked gaming rings that companies such as Betfair go to great lengths to monitor the betting patterns on its site.

'Prevent, discover, examine'

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

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

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

But perhaps the most important is the integrity team of eight individuals, which uses computer and analytical tools to prevent criminal activity being carried out in connection with sport and gambling, and to keep bad guys off the Betfair website.

"Our job is to prevent, spot, and investigate," says the Betfair private investigator, or "integrity analyst", who asks not to be called due to the fact that of his operate in dealing with criminal activity.

"We work carefully with the authorities and other law-enforcement agencies, gambling regulators, sports bodies, and organisations which promote accountable gaming."

The challenges dealing with Betfair range from potential match-fixing driven by illegal gaming rings, to money-laundering, to people utilizing taken or cloned charge card to bet with, to sportspeople utilizing inside info.

Betfair hosts odds 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 conditions which allows Betfair to check closely their background and, in certain suspicious scenarios, to pass their information on to the appropriate sporting or legal authorities.

In addition it has likewise developed an early-warning computer program called BetMon, which governing bodies can utilize to enjoy betting patterns (however not consumer details) on the Betfair site for their sports.

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

"Records are kept of each login and bet, event, selection, stake, odds, profit - if any - and method of bet, along with the IP address of the computer used to make the bet," says the Betfair analyst.
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"Phone calls are likewise recorded, too, for possible future reference."
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Indeed, Betfair is happy of its capability to spot suspicious betting patterns - in one of 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 video game in the Poland Open, and this promotion code came after "irregular" betting patterns on his match.

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

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

Sporting advice

Often criminal betting rings target players or match authorities in an attempt to produce the desired result of a sporting fixture.
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Which is where individuals such as Simon Taylor, who has actually been the General Secretary of the yohaig code Professional Players Federation (PPF) in the yohaig code UK because 2006, come in.

He is likewise 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, consisting of Betfair, to and deliver education programmes to players on sports wagering and the prospective pitfalls.

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

"Our research revealed that 40% of footballers did not understand the rules about not wagering on competitions they were associated with," he states, mentioning the significance of player details.

Mr Taylor said that typically those caught up in illegal gambling pressures were young athletes, especially footballers, who could come under pressure from bad guys who befriend them.

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

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

His organisation likewise provides guidance and support for sportsmen and ladies who might struggle with issue betting.

'Memorandums of comprehending'

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

By moving its gaming licence from the UK to Gibraltar the firm was no longer bound by any statutory responsibility to notify Britain's Gambling Commission of any suspicious betting.

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

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

"Our UK licence required us to notify any suspicious information to the Gambling Commission," states Betfair's Susannah Gill.

"Technically we do not have to that anymore, but we will continue to do this promotion code. That will continue forever.
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"We understood back in the early days that information sharing is central to sports stability."

Betfair Corporate
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Professional Players Federation

Gibraltar Remote Gaming
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