Australian sports bodies taking cuts from international bookmakers

On June 11, ABC’s Four Corners released an investigation into secret betting deals between major international bookmakers and Australia’s biggest sporting organisations.

According to the report, Football Australia is involved in an agreement that provides it with a cut of wagers placed on soccer games in the country. This ranges from international events to amateur suburban club games.

The deal is similar to the agreements between global betting companies and other peak sporting bodies like the AFL, NRL, and Cricket Australia. They reportedly receive up to 17.5% in what is referred to as “product integrity fees” from the betting operator’s profits from the bets placed.

According to the deal terms, Football Australia’s earnings are either 1% of every wager placed on a soccer game in Australia or 15% of the operator’s profits, depending on the bigger sum. This gives Football Australia a sizeable check regardless of whether the bookmaker suffers a loss on a bet.

The payments can go up to millions of dollars annually, in addition to the amount produced by advertising and sponsorship.

Football Australia revealed in a statement that it allowed bets on amateur-level events “as a strategy to maintain oversight and protect the game from potential integrity threats through information sharing”.

The peak body further stated that it was well informed of the potential risks involved and had set up a comprehensive integrity framework to manage them.

“In 2022, domestic product fees accounted for a very low portion of our total revenue. These fees are reinvested in our integrity services and various not-for-profit football development programs,” the statement continued.

The report also revealed that bookmakers regularly used data scouts who sat in on amateur-level games and collected live data. This data is then sent to bookmakers, allowing punters to bet on matches that were usually not live-streamed, in real time.

A photo captured by ABC featured a man sitting on a fold-out chair on the sidelines, observing a weekend soccer match and sending out live updates on his phone.

While he declined to reveal his name, the data scout stated that he worked for the Swiss gambling company Sportradar. The company specialises in collecting live data during sporting competitions and has over 5,000 scouts gathering data from millions of events every year. Some of its biggest customers include gambling giant Bet365.

In a statement, the data firm said, “Sportradar is one of several companies that collects data in various ways from sporting competitions in Australia.

“We may distribute that data to licensed bookmakers around the world and if so, subject those customers to rigorous compliance and background check. We also use the data we collect to inform our bet monitoring and detection of suspicious betting patterns for integrity partners including Football Australia.”

Besides Football Australia, several other governing bodies in Australian also have deals with bookmakers. While none of the codes revealed how much the agreements were worth, the NRL stated that it received $50 million last year.

The NRL disclosed in a statement that the agreement with international bookmakers would “safeguard the integrity of the sport” and restrict the games punters can access in the country.

“This is done to safeguard the integrity of the sport and such agreements obviously restrict commercial outcomes,” the rugby league organisation said.

“Wagering makes up a relatively small, but important revenue stream which is reinvested into the game’s integrity, education, wellbeing, and participation programs.”

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