Integrity in Sport
I am on my way into parliament this afternoon to talk about matters of integrity in sport.
I meant to comment on the David Haye incident a couple of weeks back, but somehow never found the time because I've been busy with new clients, and then recruiting for Camberton. (Not to bore you with day-by-day accounts, but we will be seven people by January, and are moving out of our first office to a bigger one, which is quite exciting.)
There were lots of points that could have been made around that incident, even if you accept that the man himself in this case was entirely innocent of any nefarious activity, on which I offer no judgment one way or another.
Many have been made in articles since, and my point here is not to labour them. In short, the incident, either directly or indirectly, underlined the fact that those who bang on about 'betting to lose' miss the point about potential corruption in sport entirely; and that obsessing about betting on a loss (even if you stress that you can do it betting on a counter-win) brings you no closer to the heart of fighting corruption at its root.
And, in addition, it made a simple fact widely apparent to people who might not previously have thought about it: punters who bet on any outcome other than the one which comes to pass are defrauded in the event that something turns out to be fixed (again casting no aspersions in this case; it served merely to make the point), since all the odds give a false reflection of the probability of a given occurrence.
But in a way, what was perhaps most striking was the media hullaballoo which accompanied it - or more precisely, the question that it raised: why do some "betting scandals" make big headlines, when so many others fly almost unnoticed under the radar?
I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this. Is it because they make the news when they can (falsely) be linked to High Street or Internet (by which I mean, regulated) betting? It seems to me, looking at the stories below (which is just a selection of what I have pulled out from the last month alone), that when betting is clearly and unarguably linked with organised crime, the black market, and unregulated betting, there is less eagerness (willingness? I am not sure...) to cover them more widely. When it involves a big name and can be reported in a way that suggests that the big companies can somehow be held to account for it, perhaps even adding that they really ought to be paying to keep sport clean, it's all over the papers.
Anyone have a view?
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/06122010/2/croatian-police-charge-21-match-fixing-case.html
http://sports.globaltimes.cn/soccer/2010-12/599381.html
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/sport/Undefined-Headline/article-2963923-detail/article.html
http://www.sportinglife.com/snooker/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=snooker/10/11/23/SNOOKER_Higgins_Nightlead.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/9214084.stm
http://www.iol.co.za/sport/soccer/world-leagues/platini-calls-for-sport-police-1.865632
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11789671
http://supersport.com/football/europe/news/101114/Platini_confirms_matchfixing_doubts
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/football/top-stories/Greek-club-owner-says-match-fixing-widespread/articleshow/6927187.cms
http://www.sportsencounter.com/news/cricket/zoly-to-reveal-fixing-coachs-name-to-acsu-11022.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iBy89oahiAJMgXz215pnY-ZCxz-w?docId=CNG.b7d34044e4d3641aeee7d94240f0d7b7.651
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/152190367
http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/182574/atp-warns-img-s-ted-forstmann
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/9181836.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hYsMFRz-Z9sB_qiJWQ1kmY0BfYug?docId=5103179
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/09/zulqarnain-haider-pakistan-betting-scandal
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1324974/Russian-betting-probe-launched-number-suspicious-matches.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.independent.ie/sport/horse-racing/bad-year-could-get-a-lot-worse-2401343.html
http://www.espn.co.uk/snooker/sport/story/59609.html