Sports betting under spotlight in UK.

Government announces names for betting panel

THE government has drawn heavily on bookmaking and horseracing to fill a 13-strong, all-male task force, whose first job will be to report within six months on measures to uphold integrity in sports betting.



Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe revealed the identity of the panel and its terms of reference on Wednesday, saying action was needed now “to tackle sports-betting corruption head-on.”


The project has been introduced in the wake of a number of sports-betting investigations, involving mainly football, snooker and tennis, though representing a tiny fraction of the markets offered daily by bookmakers.

Chairman of the new sports betting integrity panel is Rick Parry, founding chief executive of the Premier league, who is leaving Liverpool FC shortly after holding the same position for 12 years.

Panel members with a detailed knowledge of the subject include four associated directly in senior positions with betting operators – Mark Davies (Betfair), Mike O’Kane (Ladbrokes), Mike Smith (Tote) and Bill South (William Hill).

BHA independent director Ben Gunn and chief executive Nic Coward are other members.

Parry said: “Integrity and sport must go hand-in-hand and anything that threatens that bond of trust has to be stamped out."



Government’s sports betting integrity panel



Rick Parry, chairman, Liverpool FC CEO; Darren Bailey, FA director of governance & regulation; Simon Barker, Professional Players Federation director; Dave Boyle, Supporters Direct CEO; Nic Coward, BHA CEO; Chris Caisley, head of sports law group & partner at solicitors Walker Morris; Mark Davies, Betfair MD; Ben Gunn, BHA regulation director; Mike O’Kane, Ladbrokes group trading director; Ian Seabridge, Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable; MikeSmith, Tote chairman; Bill South, William Hill director of security; Nick Tofiluk, Gambling Commission director of regulation.

Phew when I saw the headline I thought perhaps they were going to ban it!

It will be interesting to see what they come up with

Morning Brent at least we can trust horses not to cheat, its only the humans they are checking, when was the last time you heard of a horse having a betting coup.

BRITISH horseracing’s share of the betting market, which has been in very slow decline since the 1970s, has never experienced as dramatic a fall as in the last 18 months, Gala Coral retail managing director Nick Rusty revealed on Thursday.

On top of the slowdown, he pointed out, the number of new customers being introduced to betting through horseracing is tiny, compared with other products such as football.

In Coral’s experience, there has been a four per cent drop in turnover in like-for-like betting shops over the last five years.



However, the corresponding fall since January 2008 has been 15 per cent in particular months, and in double figures overall.

As for new betting-shop customers, Rust said that just three per cent of his company’s first-time customers since 2006 were attracted by horseracing.

Rust was speaking at the Racehorse Owners Association annual meeting in London.