Declan Hill warns Australian sporting bodies of match-fixing threat
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Sporting agencies and police have been warned that a "tsunami of corruption is going to hit Australian sport".
Sporting agencies and integrity bodies have been called together by Victorian Police for a meeting on Wednesday, aimed at examining the threat of match-fixing.
The meeting comes in the wake of Operation Starling, which last year broke up a match-fixing syndicate operating at the Southern Stars Soccer Club in Melbourne's suburban south east.
Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill has written two books about match-fixing and corruption in sport and is a keynote speaker at Wednesday's symposium.
Look, I'm here to sound a very loud and clear warning bell: there is a tsunami of corruption going to hit Australian sport.
Declan Hill
He had a clear warning for Australia when he spoke to ABC's AM program on Tuesday.
"Look, I'm here to sound a very loud and clear warning bell: there is a tsunami of corruption going to hit Australian sport," Hill said.
"Most Asian sports are now a graveyard of hopes, ideals and dreams. The match fixing linked to the Asian gambling networks have destroyed most Asian sports.
"The sports fans of Asia, the gambling people, the fixers of Asia are now going to turn their attention to Australia.
"You guys are almost in the same time zone, you're close by and they're going to start coming here and they're going to start fixing games here. So build your defences now."
Illegal bookmakers here already
Former director of Ladbrokes in the UK and current Hong Kong Jockey Club director of trading, Patrick Jay, said that illegal bookmakers will soon be targeting Australian sport if they are not already.
"Be aware of the problem, understand how big it is, don't think you're an unsinkable ship," Jay said.
"Think that you know the problem is here - it's on your doorstep. You've had the issues with Southern Stars, you've had the issue with cricket match fixing, you've had issues with Aussie Rules.
Corruption in sport is one of the fastest growing crime types globally.
Graham Ashton
"And, you know, if you do not take it seriously, sport will be destroyed. People will think that they're watching wrestling, they won't come, you'll lose sponsors, you'll lose TV and the money will rapidly dry out and go somewhere else."
Victorian Police Deputy Commissioner of Crime and Intelligence, Graham Ashton, acknowledges match-fixing is a very real threat to the integrity of Australian sport.
He said there had already been an increase in betting interest in AFL in Asia and the range of betting offered offshore was also increasing.
"Corruption in sport is one of the fastest growing crime types globally," Ashton said.
"We know that criminal organisations that are involved in people smuggling, that are involved in the illegal sex trade, that are involved in drug trafficking; those types of syndicates are also in - we've found evidence that they've been involved in match fixing internationally.
"It's provided a new crime type for organised crime groups to get involved in."
Topics: sport, corruption, law-crime-and-justice, melbourne-3000, vic, australia
Replies
Easier to pay one ref than several players
About time all these gambling adds were banned imo. Its a blight that needs to be stopped and is ripping families apart. The States need to get off their addiction to gambling money, they couldn't care less about the consequences!