Daily Archives: June 15, 2017

Updated June 16, 2017 08:06:21

International gambling sites are collecting play-by-play data on suburban basketball and football games around Australia, raising the spectre of match-fixing.

Sportradar, a company that monitors match-fixing for FIFA, is using a low-profile subsidiary to collect data from amateur sporting competitions on behalf of offshore live-betting sites.

This subsidiary, Real Time Sportscasts, targets students through university job boards, then sends them to amateur, semi-professional and low-level sports to collect the live data.

The scouts feed data into a call centre, where it is distributed to international gambling websites.

There is concern that the use of the data by those international gambling organisations may lead others to encourage match fixing on local Australian games.

Scott Boucher, administrator for Tasmania's Southern Basketball League, one amateur competition targeted by scouts, says players were shocked when they realised odds on their games were available around the world.

"They don't believe that someone would come along just to set up gambling on their games," he says.

He says the implications of offering these games for betting are obvious.

"I could see people backing themselves to lose when the odds were right, or not turning up to play, other people outside getting involved and coercing people to throw matches," Mr Boucher says.

"Wherever money's involved, there's always someone with an extra interest."

In response to the revelations, Senator Nick Xenophon will push for a tightening of gambling laws.

"The potential for corrupting those sporting codes, the potential for compromising players and officials is just too great," Senator Xenophon says.

"We can't let our amateur sporting codes, our amateur games, be infected with gambling in this way."

"I mean, it seems that these people have no shame. It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to target an under-10 footy team somewhere in the country sooner rather than later, because right now, there are no checks, no controls, on the way these jokers operate."

Kate Tominac, a coach in the ACT Premier League Women's competition, another league that has attracted the interest of data scouts and the international betting market, says the scouts have dented her confidence.

"It makes you question every game, the officials, the other coach, the players," she says.

"I wouldn't ever imagine any of the girls in my team or any of the other teams doing that. But I mean, I wouldn't know to be honest. I wouldn't think about it. I won't try to think it about it that way."

Chris Eaton, a former Interpol officer and former head of security at FIFA, has flagged serious concerns about at least one international gambling website facilitating live betting on these matches.

Mr Eaton says this site may be owned by criminals that have used other sites to facilitate match-fixing in international football.

"If you want to control not just the match fix but the betting fraud, [you] manage a piece of the market so that you can not only manipulate odds to the favour of a fix, but be in a better ... informational position to determine the flow of the fraudulent wagering," Mr Eaton says.

There is no evidence of such activity happening in Australia as a result of this site, and Sportradar's managing director of strategy and integrity, Andreas Krannich, defended Real Time Sportscasts' use of scouts at local games.

"Sending scouts [to] matches, to different sports, to smaller events, to big events, is not something which is putting the respective sport into trouble or into risk," he says.

"If we do not send our controlled scouts to these events, you will see the scouts coming from bookmakers, and they will not be controlled.

"When we developed our scout business, it was a natural reaction to the request from the bookmaker industry, and by taking over this service from the bookmakers, we made it transparent and we prevented the dodgy people going to the events.

"At the end of the day, it's not that we are generating a market. We are responding to a market."

Senator Xenophon also has concerns over a memorandum of understanding signed by Sportradar and the Australian Federal Police in 2015.

"We need to see that memorandum of understanding. If the AFP won't provide that willingly, then there is a mechanism through the Senate to have an order for production of documents, and that's something I'll be putting up," he says.

"I can imagine that Sportradar, this multinational corporation headquartered in St Gallen in Switzerland, is probably having a daily chuckle over the fact that they've managed to co-opt the Australian Federal Police, our premier law enforcement agency, to in effect assist them through this Memorandum of Understanding, do their business in Australia, which involves allowing people overseas to gamble on amateur sports."

Background Briefing submitted a freedom of information request for the memorandum, as well as alerts sent over suspicious matches and players, which uncovered numerous documents.

However, the AFP refused to make the documents available, saying their release would have an adverse effect on investigation and intelligence operations.

"The AFP has a non-legally binding memorandum of understanding in place with the Sportradar company to assist in sport integrity and intelligence matters," the AFP said in a statement.

"Services provided by Sportradar to commercial partners are a matter for Sportradar."

Topics: gambling, sport, corruption, australia

First posted June 16, 2017 07:31:59

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Online gambling industry using data scouts to target suburban sports - ABC Online

MOSES LAKE The Moses Lake City Council is considering lowering its gambling tax rate at the request of the only business it affects.

Lake Bowl CEO B.J. Garbe offered a proposal Tuesday night to lower the gambling tax from 10 percent to five percent incrementally over four years. Lake Bowl operates the only casino card room in the city.

The reason that were asking for this proposal is our industry is dying. It really is, Garbe said. With a combination of tribal competition and legislation, were in a world of hurt and were hoping for some relief from you guys.

In 2016, the Lake Bowl card room provided about $232,000 in revenue to the city through the gambling tax. Garbe said on average the tax costs the business about $220,000.

The state allows cities and counties to collect tax on gambling receipts. The maximum tax rate for card rooms is 20 percent. City Manager John Williams said the revenue collected from the gambling tax goes into the citys general fund, and more specifically is dedicated to public safety.

Nobody else is burdened by what were burdened by, he said. There have been several other municipalities that have lowered their gambling tax. Spokane, for example, was at 15 percent at one point. They are at two percent today. And that is all for relief because we keep getting beaten, beaten, beaten by legislation and competition to where our industry is dying. The one thing that we cannot do with all these increased costs is raise prices in the gambling industry. I can in my restaurant, I can in my bar, I can in the bowling center, but I cannot in the casino. And because of that, all weve been doing for 20 years is incurring all these extra costs.

The Lake Bowl card room opened in 1998 and has paid the city more than $4 million in gambling taxes, according to Garbe.

Councilmember Ryann Leonard voiced concern about losing revenue as the city faces budget struggles.

The big thing that is holding me up here isif we dont have that money, we cant do things for the community, Leonard added. I want to support our businesses and be fair to our businesses but I also want to be fair to our citizens and our responsibility that we have as a city and the reduce monies we have coming in from our other streams.

Garbe hinted that if the card room were to close, that gambling tax revenue would be reduced to nothing.

If youre taking about the budget, 10 percent of zero is zero. Five percent of something is something, Garbe said. And thats literally what were up against. I wouldnt be here today if I didnt feel like we needed this relief. Were literally losing customers every day to (Northern) Quest. This is my only move to offset new expenses coming our way and the competition that is already here.

Lake Bowl employs about 120 people, 50 of which work in the casino. Garbe said the states new minimum wage increases will add about $723,000 in labor expenses by 2020 when the minimum wage increases to $13.50 an hour.

Im very proud of what weve been able to accomplish over decades, how we can support the community and how weve grown our workforce, providing good jobs for a lot of people, Garbe said. Unfortunately, were at that breaking point where we need some relief.

The council agreed to have city staff bring back the gambling tax ordinance to included Garbes proposal and discussed holding a future study session.

The Russell family has been a staple in our community since way back in the 50s, Mayor Todd Voth stated. Theyve contributed over the years so much in our community. This is not a threat to the council, this is not a threat to the community. I think it is reality. If they have to close down, literally were going to lose everything that theyve been doing for the community plus the employees being laid off.

In a letter to the council, the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce supported Garbes proposal.

After much discussion, we do feel that the council should take a look at this significant tax on gross revenue being placed on one business and the economic impact of those jobs in our community, chamber Executive Director Debbie Doran-Martinez wrote. While we understand the need to increase the general fund for the operation of our city, we also need to keep people employed.

Lake Bowl was opened in 1957 by George and Bernice Russell.

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Lake Bowl seeks lower gambling tax rate for Moses Lake card room - iFIBER One News

This year is the 25th anniversary of the federal law that prohibits sports betting in almost every state, yet 50 million Americans bet on Super Bowl LI this year, according to the American Gaming Association, almost all of them illegally.

This is also the best chance to end the federal ban, said AGA president and CEO Geoff Freeman on Monday when he announced the formation of the American Sports Betting Coalition. The group of law enforcement officers, elected officials and casino industry leaders will work together to fight the federal ban fueling what the AGA estimates to be a $150 million illegal sports betting market.

"I have every confidence we will succeed in getting this done," he said. The AGA is speaking with members in both houses of Congress, he said, and he is optimistic congressional hearings will happen later this fall to look at the ineffectiveness of PAPSA, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.

Nearly six in 10 Americans are in favor of lifting this federal ban, a recent survey shows, and that number increases to 72 percent approval by avid sports fans. He said new data shows legalizing sports betting could support up to 152,000 jobs, create $26 billion in economic output and generate $5 billion a year in tax revenue for states and local communities.

The coalition will work to educate lawmakers about the negative impact of illegal gambling and the need to align the law with public support. The group also will push to repeal the federal sports betting ban and let states decide, empower law enforcement to monitor and track illegal betting and deliver a safe, legal and transparent environment to "take sports betting out of the shadows," he said.

Freeman cited President Donald Trump, a former casino owner, saying people should be in favor of sports betting, since it's vital to keeping taxes low and putting bookies out of business.

Freeman came to Biloxi in 2015 to announce the AGA was launching a fight to curb illegal gambling. Ed Davis, former Boston Police Commissioner and a member of AGA's Illegal Gambling Advisory Board, said the federal law against sports betting is looked on as a joke.

He's worked on cases involving organized crime, including the Whitey Bulger case. Davis said he saw how organized crime networks use money gained illegally from sports betting to finance their other illegal activities.

"This is a very serious problem we need to talk about in the United States," he said.

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Gambling Lobby Pushes for Overturn of Federal Ban on Sports Betting - CPAPracticeAdvisor.com