Sportsbet CEO defends bookies in match-fixing row

Accusations that online bookies are to blame for corruption in professional sports are “incorrect and misleading”, according to SportsBet CEO Cormac Barry whose opinion piece in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper says betting firms must be part of the solution to match-fixing.

Responding to recent comments made by former Victorian Labor gaming minister Tony Robinson about bookmakers’ role in the rise of corruption in sport, Barry argued licensed online bookmakers were in fact the last line of defence in protecting its integrity.

“Robinson would lead you to believe that licensed Australian bookmakers are the cause of corruption, but the opposite is true,” Barry wrote.

“Bookmakers are affected financially when sport is corrupted, and they play an active role in combatting corruption by providing an audit trail for the detection of corrupt behaviour.”

Earlier this year evidence of suspected match fixing in tennis emerged and many called into question the relationship betting companies and sports federations.

William Hill Australia had just signed a major sponsorship deal with the Australian Open, and the firm was forced to defend the deal, saying close ties between the bookmaking industry and sporting bodies were “part of the solution” and not the problem.

And Barry stressed that simply linking the prominence of online betting with match-fixing was to ignore the facts.

“Suggestions by Robinson regarding an exponential growth in sports betting are also misleading. Australia’s official gambling statistics clearly demonstrate this is not the case. There hasn’t been an increase, and spending per adult has slightly declined since 2007. Further, sports betting represents a mere 3% of what Australians spend on gambling.

“Regardless of when and how gambling providers advertise, it has no bearing on the overwhelming motivation of sports and gambling providers to maintain the integrity of sport,” he wrote.

He added that Sportsbet is working with other gambling providers to develop a code with the Australian Association of National Advertisers that will complement the existing legislative, regulatory and industry self-regulatory framework, including the association’s overarching code of ethics.

“It is in everyone’s interest – sporting codes, gambling providers, governments, sports fans and punters – to ensure that Australian sports maintain the highest levels of integrity and are free of corruption,” Barry wrote.

“Sports can either work with licensed domestic providers, as they have chosen to do, or face the material risk that Australians’ spending with offshore operators continues to rise, which would compromise the integrity of Australian sport.”