A-League betting scandal could be the tip of the iceberg after infiltrating Aussie sport

While the A-League betting scandal has put corruption in sport in the limelight, ROBERT CRADDOCK writes, this is just the tip the iceberg as overseas betting is all over Aussie sport.

9 December 2023 - Macarthur 2 Sydney FC 0. Yellow card: Clayton Lewis (Macarthur) 53rd minute. Source: Paramount Plus

If you want to see how deep the tentacles of overseas betting are embedded in Australian football, don’t go to the A-League – go to your local park.

Those three curious characters you see with laptops and phones monitoring every beat of the minor league match featuring your local town are sending reports back to overseas betting agencies.

When a penalty corner is called you can watch the spies press their thumbs in unison to prod their phones and send alerts to their bosses to halt or adjust betting.

“It’s probably been happening for 20 years where people have been employed to attend these minor league soccer matches to give running commentary on the scores and where the ball was (to their overseas employers),’’ said Tabcorp’s Gerard Daffy.

“They used to work for bookies but now they often work for sports data firms. It is not unusual to see three of them at a game which might feature a team from somewhere like Ballarat, Morwell or Capalaba.

“It is not just Australia. It is in every country in the world. It happens because when the European season finishes they have nothing to bet on.’’

Three Bulls’ players - Ulises Dávila, Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis - were arrested on Friday.

The arrest of A League soccer players Ulises Dávila, Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis on betting corruption charges related to allegedly deliberate yellow card offences is a sickening blow for a competition already in its knees.

If cricket match fixing stories are any guide this tale will be long-running and deep seated and who knows where it will end.

“The betting world will be watching this with interest to see where it ends up,’’ Daffy said.

“If they have been able to infiltrate a league is Australia with a small bet type like that, what goes on elsewhere?’’

If betting interest in the little leagues is eye-catching, the focus on the A-League is simply huge. Far bigger than it deserves. And that’s what makes it vulnerable to corruption.

Underfunded and eternally challenged the A-League may be, but more than 1000 agencies in the world are licensed to bet on it. And many other illegal ones do so as well.

The betting is massive, particularly in Asia where it is televised and the Friday night game is a standout.

In cricket there used to be a saying the less noticed the fixture the more likely it was to be corrupted.

Ulises Davila is one of the players arrested. Picture: Getty Images

The A-League is somewhere in the middle – big by some standards, small by others - but Daffy was still taken aback by the news that players were allegedly copping deliberate yellow cards.

“I am stunned in this day and age with so much scrutiny and live vision on a high profile competition that anyone would ever bother trying.

“If it was a lower division game somewhere on the planet where they don’t even play for ribbons and sometimes their relatives don’t turn up I would not have been surprised.’’

These accusations have left the A League in a state of numb disbelief.

At 3.02pm a triumphant press release was sent out saying Saturday’s A-League semi-finals were SOLD OUT. Nothing to see here. Business as usual.

There appears to be other sell outs as well … of a much more sinister nature.

Originally published as A-League betting scandal could be the tip of the iceberg after infiltrating Aussie sport