Sports betting and gambling new archive
News
archive 
News
items that were displayed on the Smartgambler front
page in 2002 and 2003 with the latest material appearing
at the top.
Proceed
to 2004 news archive
Tennis
heading down cricket track?
September 2003. An article in the August 8 Brisbane
Courier Mail stated that one Australian betting agency is keeping a secret file
on two notorious players on the professional tennis circuit.
It's
not often that Smartgambler sympathises with bookies, but in this case we are
entirely on the bookie's side. These two blatant tennis cheats have already
been the subject of much dissatisfaction from Smartgambler clients, who are
concerned that more bookies will follow the lead of Sportingbet Australia and
pare back their tennis exposure if match rigging is not aggressively stamped
out by tennis officials.
Here is an interesting report on the tennis match fixing problem from the Age
Online newspaper. Click
Archived
November 2003
Tennis
bookies whacked
June
2003. A number of online bookmakers have been forced to change their rules for
payouts on tennis betting from 'ball must be served' to 'match must be completed.'
Recent plunges by professional tennis bettors against players known by insiders
to be injured have reaped huge profits and left bookies out of pocket and angry.
Our sources tell us that all bets have been paid out.
Archived November
2003
Bet365
under fire on limits
June 2003. Irate punters have been complaining about
low betting limits at prominent
online betting agency Bet365. Limits on some head to head events as low as AUD
$12 have seen punters seeing red. Smartgambler clients have produced a shame
file of useless bookies with untenable limits or who ban or restrict anyone
who wins more than a small amount.
Archived
November 2003
Westpac
introduces fee
April
2003. Westpac has dismayed gamblers by introducing a 1.5% fee on any transfer
of funds from credit cards
into
online betting accounts. This is on top of any fees charged by online bookmakers
on credit card transactions and on top of the normal interest charged by the
bank. Several other banks have already flagged their intention to follow suit.
Archived
August 2003
Tennis
losses cause scale back
April
2003. Sportingbet Australia have
reduced
their involvement in international tennis betting due to losses to Smartgambler
ATP package members and other serious tennis bettors. Wagering will be restricted
to Masters series and Grand Slam events. Sportingbet offered consistently competitive
lines on tennis but unfortunately paid the price, with several successful plunges
against them by well informed gamblers.
Archived
August 2003
Betfair
in Aussie talks
March 2003. Successful English betting exchange Betfair have held talks
with Australian gaming industry figures on licensing and other issues, flagging
a possible assault on the local market.
Archived
June 2003
Eskander
looks at betting exchange concept
March
2003. Leading Victorian bookmaker Michael Eskander is considering opening an
overseas based betting exchange to operate in the Australian market. Seemingly
based on the theory that 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em', Eskander's comment,
"It is the betting way of the future, it is tailored for the punter",
is likely to strike fear into the hearts of other bookmakers and vested interests
in the Australian gambling industry.
Betting
exchanges, where gamblers bet against each other and the house takes a percentage
for organising the transaction, are a hot topic amongst gambling industry regulators
and players at the moment, as they begin their push into the Australian market.
Archived
June 2003
License
to print money
28-2-03.
Tattersalls
has
paid just $3 million to the Victorian State Government for an exclusive lottery
license for the next 3 years.
Tatts
are expected to pocket about $120 million over that period from the deal, which
by our reckoning equates to a rather fat profit from one of the stupidest forms
of gambling around. Nice work if you can get it.
Archived
June 2003
Roulette
strike
16-1-03.
A team of sophisticated cheats has reaped massive profits from Casinos Austria
by substituting a magnetized ball. Full
story
Archived
June 2003
Bookie
reneges
A Darwin based internet sports betting agency, Consolidated
SportsBet, has had its license suspended for not paying monies owed. Full
story
Archived
March 2003
Off
Track booted:
Dubious racing software outfit, 'Off Track Investments',
has had its wings clipped by the Federal Court in
Brisbane, with the men behind it banned from selling
the software, marketed as an 'investment'. The order
also applied to variations of the software 'Bankers
Choice' and 'Autotab'. Full
story
Archived
February 2003
Bookie
hit:
18-9-02. International online bookmaker SportsInteraction.com had their internal
stop loss system triggered by Smartgambler clients plunging on AFL teams Brisbane
and Adelaide at inflated prices. An AFL client alerted the group to the clerical
error and within minutes the system shut down and refused to take further bets.
SportsInteraction was later forced to void the bets and issue a red faced apology,
thanking their lucky stars that they noticed in time.
Archived
January 2003
Counters
fail:
A public enquiry conducted by the VCGA into casino
blackjack, initiated after complaints
by skilled players that they were being barred
from winning at Crown Casino, has recommended that
the rules permitting restrictions on card counters
remain the same. Eloquent submissions from expert
players fell on deaf ears as the commission decided
that winning money from casinos is not playing fair.
Archived
January 2003
NSW bans
signs:
From July 11 2002, colorful flashing signs luring
mug punters into pokies venues are illegal in NSW.
Only six states and one territory to go!
Archived
January 2003
Arbitrage strike:
A sharp eyed Norwegian AFL
package client noticed an amazing arithmetical
blunder by a major international sportsbook on round
13 of the AFL season which produced an arbitrage on
3 of the 8 matches. Smartgambler members hit the site
with tens of thousands of dollars worth of unlosable
bets.
Archived January
2003
Stephen
Clarke:
Associate Professor Stephen
Clarke, the man behind the high profile Swinburne
Uni footy tipping computer, will continue his successful
AFL football betting package
in the 2003 season. Stats guru Clarke scored the tipping
equivalent of a hole in one when his computer freakishly
predicted the drawn Essendon-Western match in round
14.
Archived
January 2003
Tennis
betting:
Smartgambler has launched
another serious attack on sports betting with the
release of the ATP
Tour Package in September 2002. Professional
tennis bettor Tony M is providing the information.
Tony tipped Alberto Costa at 50-1 before the French
Open to the AFL insiders group.
Archived
January 2003
Loss limits
for pokies players:
Crown
Casino is claiming a world first with the introduction of a scheme which will
allow poker machine players to set their own daily loss limits. The problem
as we see it is that anyone foolish enough to play for long on the pokies is
presumably expecting to win, not lose. Victorians alone lost $2.6 billion on
the pokies in 2001.
Archived July
2002
Blackjack
rules under scrutiny:
The
Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority have taken submissions
from the public to aid them in a review of the rules
of blackjack. Agitation from professional card counters
claiming discrimination against skilled players struck
a nerve under the Bracks government. For more information
visit BJ
Masters which is run by a player banned
from Crown premises.
Archived
July 2002
Our racing
expert quoted:
Pro-Punter's
chief racing analyst Neil Davis was used for expert
comments in the Tuesday
6th November 2001 edition of The Age online.
Pro-Punter is OZmium's dedicated racing site.
Archived July
2002
Proceed
to 2004 news archive
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