Australia’s premier rugby competition have been approached by a former-gambling company chief executive to set up an anti-corruption unit.
The plans will see a gambling protection unit set up by former high-ranking TAB-executive for the National Rugby League (NRL) and The Daily Telegraph reports that up to $1million could be returned to each NRL club every year.
A source told the paper, “The plan was to set up our own team of stewards with all the powers they need.
“Every player would have wording in their contracts around betting which would give stewards access to their phone records, betting accounts, whatever.”
It comes after a scandal involving North Queensland Cowboys player Ryan Tandy rocked the sport. There’s also been a number of deals put in place by NRL with companies such as FullTiltPoker.net, PokerStars.net, and Sportingbet.
“It is exactly like they do in racing. They would identify trends. For instance if a player pulled out of a game, they would look back over the betting trends in the lead-up to the announcement to see if and where the money had come from.
“They’d know who is tipping who and where the mail is coming from on every game.
The cost related to the plan is around $8million from the outset to set it up and hire a team of stewards. It will then cost the league around $3million each year whereas the sport would see returns of close to $20-25million each year.
That money would come from a sports betting turnover tax that it’s hoped will be discussed after a decision is made by the High Court next Friday over the validity of turnover fees collected by NSW racing since September 2009.
