Management
28th April 2004, 11:15 AM
"TAB PUBLISHES FURTHER FALSE STATEMENT
28 April 2004:
TAB Limited continues to offend and deceive as its campaign to see Betfair banned from operating in Australia continues. Its subtle shift from attacking ‘internet betting exchanges’ to ‘foreign internet betting exchanges’ also serves to reveal its real agenda: anything works, so long as we can run it.
Alleging that race-fixing has increased since betting exchanges were developed is the same as saying that speeding on roads is more prevalent since speed cameras were introduced, by virtue of the fact that the detection rate of speeding cars is now higher. It is naďve, if not ignorant.
Betting exchanges provide maximum transparency in sports and horserace betting. Where corruption exists – and history suggests strongly that it has long existed wherever money and sport mix – it is more likely to be unearthed thanks to betting exchanges than it is through any other wagering platform.
On an exchange, every transaction is logged, and is traceable to an end user. Every detail of every bet is recorded and kept indefinitely. You cannot seek to profit on a betting exchange through rigging a race without leaving indelible fingerprints.
This is why a committee of British MPs and peers recently reported to the UK government that “the audit trail produced by betting exchanges is far superior to that produced by ordinary bookmakers, as acknowledged by the Chief Executive of the Association of British Bookmakers.”
Betfair’s Memorandum of Understanding with sporting bodies allows it to give them full access to this unprecedented betting information. That Memorandum is available today, without any strings attached, to Australian racing, as it has been since the first day of Betfair’s operation in Australia.
Alleged corruption in horseracing is not a betting exchange issue. If it exists, it is a racing issue. It is not one to which exchanges bring new problems, but it is one to which they bring powerful solutions. In seeking to deflect attention away from the exchange model as a whole to foreign exchanges in particular, TAB acknowledges this fact. It is time for it also to acknowledge, as the well-known bookmaker Victor Chandler already has, that “the only problem with betting exchanges is that I didn’t think of them first”.
Ends"
28 April 2004:
TAB Limited continues to offend and deceive as its campaign to see Betfair banned from operating in Australia continues. Its subtle shift from attacking ‘internet betting exchanges’ to ‘foreign internet betting exchanges’ also serves to reveal its real agenda: anything works, so long as we can run it.
Alleging that race-fixing has increased since betting exchanges were developed is the same as saying that speeding on roads is more prevalent since speed cameras were introduced, by virtue of the fact that the detection rate of speeding cars is now higher. It is naďve, if not ignorant.
Betting exchanges provide maximum transparency in sports and horserace betting. Where corruption exists – and history suggests strongly that it has long existed wherever money and sport mix – it is more likely to be unearthed thanks to betting exchanges than it is through any other wagering platform.
On an exchange, every transaction is logged, and is traceable to an end user. Every detail of every bet is recorded and kept indefinitely. You cannot seek to profit on a betting exchange through rigging a race without leaving indelible fingerprints.
This is why a committee of British MPs and peers recently reported to the UK government that “the audit trail produced by betting exchanges is far superior to that produced by ordinary bookmakers, as acknowledged by the Chief Executive of the Association of British Bookmakers.”
Betfair’s Memorandum of Understanding with sporting bodies allows it to give them full access to this unprecedented betting information. That Memorandum is available today, without any strings attached, to Australian racing, as it has been since the first day of Betfair’s operation in Australia.
Alleged corruption in horseracing is not a betting exchange issue. If it exists, it is a racing issue. It is not one to which exchanges bring new problems, but it is one to which they bring powerful solutions. In seeking to deflect attention away from the exchange model as a whole to foreign exchanges in particular, TAB acknowledges this fact. It is time for it also to acknowledge, as the well-known bookmaker Victor Chandler already has, that “the only problem with betting exchanges is that I didn’t think of them first”.
Ends"