Daniel Dobson (pictured), the UK man allegedly caught ‘court-siding’ at the Australian Open tennis competition in Melbourne this week, has officially been charged with engaging in conduct that would corrupt a betting outcome. Dobson made bail after his appearance Thursday at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where prosecutors accused the Brit of using an electronic device stitched into his shorts to transmit data on the tennis action to accomplices overseas. Two other Brits are reportedly under investigation in connection with Dobson’s activities.
Dobson’s case has been adjourned until Jan. 23 and the 22-year-old Brit has been ordered to shack up at a Melbourne hotel and also to keep a healthy distance from the tennis courts. Dobson is the first individual to be charged under the new ‘court-siding’ law, which was enacted in the state of Victoria last April. Conviction under the Crimes Amendment (Integrity in Sports) Act 2013 carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Dobson’s attorney Sazz Nasimi told the court that his client hadn’t been cheating but was instead relaying data back to his employer, Surrey-based Sporting Data Limited. Sporting Data describes its role as “providing sporting data and services to certain individuals” that use the info to place wagers. Sporting Data has acknowledged that Dobson is on its payroll and that it routinely employs individuals to attend matches and relay info back to its London office but insists the company “has never been and never will be involved in any illegal betting or any other illegal activity whatsoever and take a serious view of any allegations that they have.”
Sporting Data’s website now features a lengthy treatise on its methodology and beliefs. The company says it uses “mathematical models to assess the probability of a match outcome. Bets will be placed when the odds generated by the model are significantly out of line with the market. A lot of syndicates use a similar methodology. Clearly, we need the most up to date information to generate accurate match probabilities. We cannot rely on TV pictures as they are out of date.” Sporting Data says most of its customers make their wagers on betting exchanges, “the tightest and most competitive environment there is.”
Sporting Data said it supports the aims of the new Victorian law, but suggests it is “being applied entirely inappropriately here.” The company offered the opinion that Dobson’s info-relaying “is exactly what umpires do. They send information from the court back to other organizations that use it to profit from betting.” Sporting Data says “the principle is identical” to how Danish firm Enetpulse supplies official live tennis data to bookies like Bet365, Paddy Power and William Hill.
Sporting Data believes that the onus is on the Victorian authorities to prove that Dobson’s activities meet the law’s definition of something that might “corrupt or would corrupt a betting outcome of an event or event contingency.” Sporting Data insists “there is no way we could conceivably be affecting how the match pans out.”
SPORTSBET CEO SLAMS AUSSIE IN-PLAY BETTING LAWS
Meanwhile, figures from Cricket Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) have Sportsbet CEO Cormac Barry looking to take a bat to Australia’s in-play betting laws. Betting exchange Betair has reported handling $591m in wagers on the first 23 matches of the BBL, a sum that spokesman Daniel Bevan said was driven by the popularity of in-play wagers. Such wagers are not permitted online in Australia, but are accepted over the phone. Bevan said the majority of its in-play wagers were coming from Betfair’s overseas clientele.
In response, Bevan said Sportsbet was missing out because its corporate parent Paddy Power “only operates in regulated countries” and therefore Sportsbet declines to accept wagers from overseas punters. Bevan said Betfair’s bonanza was further proof that Australia’s Interactive Gambling Act “does nothing to control betting on Australian sport and only serves to put licensed Australian wagering operators at a competitive disadvantage.” Australia has repeatedly toyed with authorizing online in-play wagers, only to back away at the last second.
