Boots and all | Coming to a game near you: IRB joins IOC’s fight against match-fixing
Penalties, dropped passes, forward passes or even missed tackles might all be viewed with suspicion in future, and will come under scrutiny with the International Rugby Board reaffirming its commitment to the fight against illegal betting, match-fixing and corruption.
Penalties, dropped passes, forward passes or even missed tackles might all be viewed with suspicion in future, and will come under scrutiny with the International Rugby Board reaffirming its commitment to the fight against illegal betting, match-fixing and corruption.
The IRB last week signed up to the International Olympic Committee’s Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS), an intelligence-sharing digital platform which will enable the IRB and its unions to access an extensive network of monitoring and data-sharing across sports, event owners and major sports betting entities.
Its main goal is to safeguard the game from illegal sports betting. This scourge is widespread and rife in the two other team sports propagated by the British when the sun never set on its empire – cricket and football.
Cricket has been ridden with scandals ever since former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje admitted in 2000 he had accepted money to fix games. Only last month former New Zealand test batsman and one-time batting coach for Hong Kong Lou Vincent was charged with corruption after providing information to match-fixing investigators.
In football, corruption is even more deep-rooted. Leagues from Finland to Singapore have been compromised. One of the most famous syndicates was based in Singapore and they had their dirty hands deep in the game. It was estimated the cash-rich Asian market wagered more than US$1 trillion annually.
The referee, already the most vilified person on the field, will now come under even more examination
Hong Kong’s huge illegal sports betting market generated HK$500 billion in turnover last year, the SCMP revealed last weekend.