Wagers of sin

AussieRulesBlog is staggered by a report in The Age of a punter wagering $18,000 on the Sydney Swans missing the final eight in 2012. Let’s not beat around the bush — this issue of gambling on AFL is becoming a more and more significant one.

We’re not wowsers here at AussieRulesBlog Central, but the punt simply isn’t one of our vices. We don’t understand why someone would wager more than 20% of our annual pre-tax salary on an AFL team not making the final eight. Even were we a millionaire, we wouldn’t see this as an entertainment.

With the recent suspensions of Gold Coast’s Nathan Bock for the heinous crime of telling someone he’d be playing — uncharacteristically — forward and the Barcodes’ Captain Nick Maxwell for a similar offence, no-one should mistake the direction the gambling industry would have our wonderful game take.

Cricket shows the temptations available when the gambling industry starts introducing books on exotic incidents and statistics. Pakistani players have paid, perhaps with their careers.

Admittedly, cricket offers far greater opportunity for manipulation to satisfy the format of exotic wagers, but the Maxwell and Bock incidents confirm that AFL is not immune.

Who’s to say that in some future Grand Final a key position forward noted for accuracy in front of goal inexplicably misses the first x shots? Is it nerves? Is it the result of a financial inducement? Is his team disadvantaged by these misses? Many would say that missed shots in the third quarter cost Geelong a Grand Final in 2008.*

According to The Age’s report, wagers on not making the 2012 Final Series have been placed on only one other team with the bookmaker in question at the time of writing. The imbalance of the wagers alone — only two teams out of seventeen, given that GWS is a lock in the bottom eight, and notwithstanding the quantum of the bets — provides a prima facie case for investigation.

In our view, the AFL needs to move as quickly as possible to outlaw, or at the very least heavily restrict, exotic betting on AFL games. If wagers are restricted to win or loss, in a two-horse race, there’s little attraction for nefarious people to get involved and sully the game. Without action, this problem will escalate.

We’re also moved to wonder whether the reporter or The Age were influenced to produce the story — especially since it concludes with rundowns on markets for games won (another exotic bet) and the ubiquitous Brownlow market (before a single practice game has been played), amongst others.

What is it they say about a fool and his money?

* Note: We have absolutely no evidence of any impropriety by any Geelong player. We use this example merely to support our contention that such incidents could be used by bookmakers.