With news in the wind about a major European football match fixing scandal being unearthed, questions are being raised in other parts of the world regarding the impact of sports betting on the integrity of major leagues.
Scant details are available on the European scandal reported in yesterday's Guardian, other than the fact that there have been 15 arrests (Germany, Switzerland) with another 200 individuals suspected of involvement in a match fixing operation that may have involved up to 200 European football games.
Match fixing and corruption in sports linked to betting activity is not new. But with the proliferation of betting options online, organized crime elements are having a more profound effect on the integrity of sporting leagues than ever before. Some Asian soccer leagues have already collapsed due to excessive corruption according to Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill.
Hill told a conference in Australia recently that he had witnessed first hand 'leagues where the sport has effectively been destroyed by corruption. I witnessed matches in the highest sports tournament in the world that I believe were corrupted'. And he warns that Australia's betting culture and rapid growth in sport betting there in last decade makes them a obvious target for Asian crime syndicates.
Betting growth in Australia over the last decade has been nothing short of mind blowing. Recent studies completed by the Queensland Treasury and Productivity Commission suggest that 15 years ago $15 million was bet on sports annually, compared to $300 million now - and that figure is also likely to be a conservative one. There are an estimated 424,000 Australian sports wagering accounts held with various operators currently - up 103% on just 4 years ago.
Many new sports betting agencies, mostly online and licensed out of the Northern Territory have sprung up offering punters an increased range of bets, including the enormously popular 'in-play' bets.
And while no one is yet suggesting that any of the major leagues, namely AFL, NRL and A-League are tainted, the issue has certainly come to the fore, with politicians now weighing with calls for it to be addressed. Senator Nick Xenophon is calling for all sports betting to be suspended until a national regulatory body is established to oversee the practice.
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