New Jersey has been hit by yet another setback on legalizing sport betting in the state after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals panel dispelled their appeal. It was on the 25^th day of August when representatives of the State were faced with a dilemma which has been onto them for four years now after a jury of three judges of the U.S Third Circuit Court of Appeal dispelled their bid to allow sports betting in both casinos and racetracks.

This is a huge blow to the State which has no any other option of appealing the case but would rather engage the “en Banc” review which stipulates that the case would be tabled across a panel of 23 judges unlike previous cases where only 3 judges took part.

The main antagonizing issue calls for a clear check up on the plan of New Jersey in adding sports betting to casinos and racetracks and if it would go against the 1992 federal ban on sports betting that was referred to as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

New Jersey claims that its attempt to incorporate sports betting was to revive the demising horse racing industry as well as Atlantic casinos that are besieged. The passing of the law four years ago prompted the NHL, MLB, NBA, NFL and NCAA moving to the caught to sue the State as they claimed that the integrity of these sports would be disrupted through match fixing and corruption and moreover this would go against the 1992 Act. The court has since then made verdicts siding with the leagues.

If the State is not accorded with the “en banc” review, it can move further up to the Supreme caught but faces a wrath after their previous attempt in 2013 failed provided the Supreme Court of the U.S only allows 1% of the petitions. They may also antechamber the Congress in changing the federal ban but this may take years.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) the man behind the pushing of legalization of Sports betting in the state claimed that their only left option is the Third Circuit. He hopes that this may go through as he advocated for the passing of Sports betting legalization to the State four years ago.

Widjaja is a former betting trader and is known to have hacked Singapore Pools about $200,000. He did this by coming up with a conspiracy with his colleague in manipulating football odds. Yesterday he received a jail term of 4 years.

Rocky Widjaja is 26 years and agreed to 13 out of 52 counts of cheating with Thomas Tong Heng Huat who is 32 years for the use of a computer to gain access a programme known as Margin Maker 2 (MM2); this was used to cheat the Singapore Pools.

Toh Yung Cheong who was the judge to the case denied the permanent citizen to Singapore cash-bailout. The case has a pending appeal against ruling. At the same time, the court learnt that in August 2011, the two colleagues had intentions of cheating their employer through the use of the software to control the odds of the “total goals: over/under”. They intended to do this on the different leagues and football matches in international leagues.

This plan would be implemented by either of the man who on the trading rooms in Singapore Pools’ headquarter was on the shift at the time of implementation. The man who would be off shift would place their bet and his conspirator would accept the bet, before they lowered the odds a couple of minutes after.

The actions would be coordinated and a sure win would be guaranteed for them and a sure loss for the Singapore Pools. The tickets that won the bet would be claimed at different pools outlets.

The scheme went on for a long time before being unravelled until January 20^th, 2012. This is when it was realized that Widjaja had gone against the staff regulations through his the bets that he placed in the outlets. The bets were between $12,000 and $38,000 and the winning would be as much as $44,000.

When Ricky’s actions were discovered, he erased his texts and a Microsoft spreadsheet that contained details to the offences. His lawyer made an impassioned plea for the pre-sentence report. She reported that her client had made a full restitution for all the money he took together with Thong’s share. Thong is currently serving a 5year-4months jail term for similar offences.

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.

Visa has told FIFA that they might end their sponsorship if the soccer’s governing body will no act to get back their reputation after senior officials were got arrested on charges of corruption.

As sponsors went on to show their concern on this issue, Visa’s statement was the strongest. Visa became a partner to FIFA in 2007 and they had recently extended their partnership to 2022. Customers to brands associated with FIFA took to social media threatening to boycott.

Visa said that this was a great disappointment and that FIFA should make swift moves and immediate actions in addressing the issues that are transpiring within the organisation. They pointed out that FIFA should start by building a culture which has strong ethical practises but when it fails to do this, they will have no option but reassess their sponsorship.

The US prosecutors issued an indictment on Wednesday which accused 9 of the officials from FIFA. The indictments included those of 5 sports media and promotions officials involving $150 million in a span of over 24 years.

This indictment included a statement indicating that an apparel company offered to pay $160 million in 1996 for over 10 years as long as they remained the exclusive footwear, accessories and equipment supplier for the Brazilian team. Even though the indictment did not state the company, this might be Nike Inc which is the official sponsors of the Brazilian national team. When Nike was called upon to comment on this, they said that they believe in fair play and transparency in sports and in business. They oppose any kind of manipulation and bribery and are cooperating and will continue to do so until the whole mystery is unravelled.

In November last years, Sony and Emirates Airlines announced that they would not renew their deals with FIFA. Qatar Airways and Samsung are said to be on talks to replace them. Emirates and Sony were the main 6 partners that together paid $177 million in 2014 to access right in advertising in the World Cup stadiums, as well as, use their FIFA trademark.

A source that is familiar to Sony’s decision said that one of the reasons to their withdrawal was suspected corruption but the major issue was on the high cost on the sponsorship deal.

On 18^th May, 2015, police in Italy made arrests of dozens of lower league footballers and officials of the clubs after a probe into being suspects of betting on matches that were linked to a crime group known as Ndrangheta. Mafia network’s prosecutors of Calabria gave out arrest warrants for the arrests of 50 people from different parts of Italy. 30 more are under investigation in an inquiry labelled Dirty Soccer.

This investigation is focused on matches in this season and has involved clubs in Lega Pro and Serie D; which are the third and fourth tiers of Italian football. This emerges as the latest in a series of betting and other scandals that have been used to demean the reputation of football in Italy. The worst thing is that it involves Italy’s biggest clubs and footballers.

The investigators also brought to light evidence of attempts or actual match fixing which was related to betting in 1980 and 1986. These two incidences are known to have been the main reasons for Paolo Rossi’s ban for three years. This ban was later lowered to two years after an appeal where Rossi resumed playing and he played a major role in taking Italy to the World Cup in 1982.

Another major investigation was carried out in 2006 and it saw Juventus relegated after the investigation revealed the corruption of referees. There was also a new scandal that was performed which focused on betting on minor details in matches and not on the results. This was an investigation done in 2011.

Let’s wait and see what these new investigations on dirty soccer will lead to.

Proper football betting tips

To avoid such incidences in about dirty soccer, you could use safe and legal betting strategies to earn you good returns.

• Have a bet target prior to placing the bet to know how much you will be expecting back
• Learn that betting is not a get rich quick venture
• Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed (SMART) bets
• Define your budget and do not go over what you have allocated to your betting
• Learn the different types of bets available in soccer betting and analyze the matches to bet on the one you find fit