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Casinos> 2007
- Real Casinos News Archive>
Uk Gambling Commission May Rein In Novelty Betting
Potential for cheating could be considerable say sporting
bodies
Recent novelty betting partnerships between Will Hill and Paddypower,
and more recently Betfair and Virgin Games could find themselves
restricted by the UK Gambling Commission following its announcement
last week that it is to consider introducing tough restrictions
on the type of bets that bookmakers are allowed to offer.
Virgin has teamed up with Betfair (see previous InfoPowa report)
to give its customers the ability to place bets on the entertainment,
football, cricket, golf, greyhounds, motor sport, rugby and tennis
sectors - generically called novelty betting.
“Virgin Games is all about fun and entertainment, so novelty
betting is a good fit for the brand," Virgin Games CEO Simon
Burridge explained. "Although entertainment betting is seen
as a sideline by most of the traditional bookies, we believe it
is a market with huge potential. Every year, millions of people
spend millions of pounds phoning and texting votes into reality
TV shows.”
But football, rugby and cricket administrators apparently fear
that a new generation of cheats could take advantage of unusual
sports bets that are not dependent on the outcome of a game, according
to a report in The Times newspaper this week.
Consequently, the Gambling Commission has announced that it is
to consider introducing tough restrictions on the type of bets that
bookmakers are allowed to offer.
In a consultation paper released last week, the watchdog asked
whether it “...should require the gambling industry to offer
only certain categories of betting opportunities”.
The proposal is being resisted by the betting world, which claims
that there is no evidence of widespread cheating. It is one of a
number of ideas being considered by the commission to boost the
integrity of sports betting. These include the creation of an official
results service for sport similar to the one that currently exists
in horseracing. At present bookmakers decide for themselves how
they wish to settle bets.
The suggestions come after pressure from the sporting industry,
which fears that the expansion of sports betting, driven by the
arrival of betting exchanges such as Betfair, is the biggest challenge
to the industry. The representative bodies of five sports –
football, cricket, tennis, rugby league and rugby union –
have employed a lobbying firm to try to tackle the issue.
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