South Australian senator has been on the front line in fighting the illegal online sports betting as many shares his view and claim that credit by sports betting firms to clients should be abolished, there should be incorporation of tighter laws and existence of a national self-exclusion register.
Senator Nick claimed that many clients have been targeted as preys to these betting firms that give betting credit which is used as a hook to uninformed clients. The released Monday report referred to as the “Duds, Mugs and the A-List” claimed that for the better betting in Australia, credit extension by online betting companies to bettors should be abolished.
According to the Financial Counselling Australian Policy manager Lauren Kevin, the sport betting firms should be prohibited from according clients with credits and later in six weeks time sue them at the courts. This will be accompanied by the inclusion of tighter betting rules that would oversee successful betting as well as the incorporation of a national exclusion register. The wagering companies should also restrain from sharing personal information for its clients from one company to another. This comes as a result of client being manipulated and enticed by another betting firm in resuming betting after he becomes a cold bettor.
The Australian Wagering Council (AWC) who corresponds to Unibet, William Hill Group, Sportsbet, Bet365 as well as Betfair claimed that it would support the national credit register but opposed the abolishment of the credit arguing that it is not evident clear if sports betting have been the main reason that people are becoming problematic to their lives due to betting.
These betting firms have the tendency of incorporating credits to their clients and have subsidiaries everywhere in Australia. For instance, William Hill has its subsidiaries such as Tom Waterhouse, Centrebet and Sportingbet. On the other hand, CrownBet comes from its former brand BetEasy which is under the managerial hierarchy of James Packer’s Crown Resorts. UK based Ladbrokes has several subsidiaries among them Ubet and TabCorp. All these firms have been chasing bettor’s dollar day in day out and when ones runs out of money, he is accorded with credit for redemption which in essence will only inflict more harm and stress on him.
However, states in Australia should take up the initiative of banning credit offers by these firms and follow the footsteps of Victoria State.

Law breaking will have consequences always. This was what Ladbrokes Australia and William Hill ‘click to call’ betting services found themselves into after it was apparent that the two betting firms had violated gaming laws. This prompted the law makers to task The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) to conduct through investigation on the two betting firms. The investigating company later would hand over the investigation to the federal Police.

Back in May, ACMA was tasked with conducting an investigation to the two betting firms with focus based on the mirror live/in-play betting an illegal way of betting that was against Australia’s Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (IGA 2001).

However, ACMA was forced to withdraw from the investigation and hand over the task to Federal police as it claimed that this was a ‘click to call service investigation and hence it would fall under local jurisdiction thus giving mandate to the Federal Police investigation. This made ACMA distance itself from the case and could not even give advices on the same.

The rules were very clear that anything that would involve irregularities of internet gambling that is based locally in Australia, the ACMA could not intervene. The company claimed that such crimes should be handled by local enforcements and in this case it would be the duty of local Federal Police to take up the role.

Another role that ACMA can play in this category is to report AFP any sort of local proscribed internet gambling.

‘Click to Call’ feature basically involves a situation where a client is in a position of communicate directly with operators in the other end of the wire through microphones that are connected in computers. However, this would only work when a client is live betting. In essence, once a client chooses his or her preferred teams to bet on, it would be now the duty of live market teams to complete the processing.

On the other hand, the two betting firms had earlier stipulated that the new feature was legal since it went along as per the provisions of the IGA 2001 policies.

Sportradar and Europol are now in a joint venture. This partnership is aimed at protecting integrity in sporting in the continent. These two parties penned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which acknowledged their collaboration and support to one another. This will also include trading of expertise, information, statistical data and trends that will relate to integrity to sports’ events.

The Europol Deputy Director; Wil Van Gemert pointed out that they need to work hand in hand in order to stop incidences like match fixing. He was grateful of their new collaboration with Sportradar and they plan to create difficulty in match fixtures and game manipulators to continue with their crimes.

CEO to Sportradar Carsten Koerl acknowledged on the efforts by Europol towards discussing and investigating issues that related to match-fixing. He pointed out on operations by Europol like VETO which involves teams of police from 13 European countries that were successful in identifying 425 individuals who were suspected of having 380 matches fixed in 15 countries. With this, it is evident that Europol is committed in getting rid of match fixing.

This move to sign the agreement shows how the two entities are dedicated at making sure that sports betting is safe and no manipulation is happening. Working together will strengthen their mission and will assist them in making more breakthroughs which will bring down those who undermine credibility of sports we are all interested in.

Sportradar grow their portfolio by bringing in a Tennis Channel

Sportradar made announcements that they have expanded their portfolio with a US pay TV tennis channel. The channel has right to telecast the US Open, Roland Garros, Australian open and Wimbledon among many more.

They have a 1-year aggrement were the Tennis Channel brings into action Sportradar Media Service’s XML feed for tennis on their portal. The XML feed brings in a wide array of data like the live scores, statistics and tournaments.

The Tennis Channel Vice President echoed his gratitude to being in business with Sportradar. He added that he hopes their fans will be treated with updated statistics and information.

Match fixing is a worldwide threat to sports and nothing regarding the competition will be in a position to work unless the officials, players and fans are sure of the results. Groups in the industry are coming up with a new system that is designed to assist in alerting in case of any suspicious betting activities that would arise in a match.

The World Lottery Association and European Lotteries launched the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS). Sportradar is powering the system and will make it possible for groups making use of it to make communications and issue alerts on any suspicious matches. The President to European Lotteries said that the EL and WLA have their commitment towards upholding honest betting and integrity around the globe.

This detection of suspicious betting has been a tool which will be used in bringing match fixing to an end before it starts or have betting stopped before a match starts. The system will make void if there is unusual volumes of betting coming in or if betting is proving to go against what the bookie might be expecting.

A recent report by the European Sports Security Association (ESSA) reveals that tennis seems to be the sport that is often associated with betting activities that are suspicious. The ESSA has for a while been monitoring betting activities and submitting alerts; over the first three months of 2015 they made 27 tennis match alerts and 17 of these were said to be suspicious after investigations were carried out. The tennis alerts were more than half of the alerts generated by the organization. Most of the remaining alerts were from soccer; others were from snooker, table tennis and snooker and they had at least one suspicious betting pattern in the quarter.

Comments from the WLA president said that this new GLMS will assist the gaming industry in corporation with the world’s sports magazine. Through this system, the organization will be in a position to work with IOC and FIFA in making sure that all information on irregular betting is addressed.