Betting scandals that rocked Aussie sport

From fixing the footy to tampering with the tennis, Australian sport has a long and inglorious history of dodgy dealings.

We’re the land of the fair go, but accusations of unfair play have dogged Australian sport for decades.

And while irregular bets and fixed matches have a long history, it appears perceptions of it are getting worse. The report of the Wood Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements in 2018 quoted a survey that found just 60 per cent of us thought elite/high-performance sport in Australia has high integrity.

Here are some of the incidents fuelling that poor perception.

NRL: 2020

Ben Trevisiol. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Joshua Wilson. Picture: John Grainger

Two Sydney men working for technology company StatEdge, which was tallying Dally M votes for the NRL, were convicted of using insider knowledge when they placed bets on the outcome of the Coach of the Year category for the 2019 awards. Associates of the two men, Joshua Wilson and Ben Trevisol, were also investigated after they placed bets on the outcome. NRL banned all betting on the Dally M Awards as a result. Wilson and Trevisol were given 18-month good behaviour bonds for using insider information.

ALL SPORTS: 2018

The Wood Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements recommended the Commonwealth establish similar match-fixing laws to those already operating in NSW, and sign an international convention on manipulation in sports. The review found a “proliferation of spot-wagering opportunities may increase the susceptibility of an event to manipulation”.

TENNIS: 2017

Nick Lindahl pictured in 2010. Picture: AFP/Greg Wood

In 2017, former pro player and coach Nick Lindahl was found guilty by the Tennis Integrity Unit of throwing a match against a non-seeded rival in Toowoomba in 2013.

Investigations commenced when betting agencies noticed an unusual amount of activity on the match. Another former player and coach, Matthew Fox, was convicted of betting on the outcome by the Melbourne Magistrates Court. He was fined $3500.

Swedish-born Lindahl received a seven-year ban and a $49,000 fine.

TENNIS: 2017

Oliver Anderson pictured in January 2016. Picture: Tennis Australia

Eighteen-year-old Queensland player Oliver Anderspon pleaded guilty in LaTrobe Valley Magistrates Court to match-fixing in 2017 after suspicious bets were placed on a tournament in Traralgon in 2016. No conviction was recorded. Another former player, Isaac Frost, pleaded guilty to match-fixing charges in Brisbane Magistrates Court and undertook community service for his involvement in the incident. He also received a worldwide suspension from the game from the Tennis Integrity Unit.

NRL: 2014

Manly’s David Williams during a 2014 match against the Newcastle Knights at Brookvale oval. Picture: Phil Hillyard

In 2014, the NRL found up to 25 players and officials from at least two Sydney-based clubs had been found to have placed bets on matches by the sport’s Integrity Unit. The NRL said at the time that the majority of bets were under $5, but the sport’s code of conduct prohibits players and officials placing any bets on matches. The highest-profile player to be suspended by the NRL as a result was Manly’s David ‘Wolfman’ Williams, who was suspended for the rest of the 2014 season after it was found he had placed bets on games in which he competed. Four other players – Ethan Lowe, Cody Nelson, Hymel Hunt and Slade Griffin – placed bets on matches they did not play in, and were suspended for two games each. No criminal charges were laid and the players were not accused of attempting to fix the outcome of the matches.

2014: FOOTBALL

Southern Star soccer players Reiss Noel (left) and Joe Wooley leave court in Melbourne, on December 6, 2013. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

Five people connected to the Southern Stars Football Club, part of the Victorian Premier League, pleaded guilty to charges of being part of an international match-fixing syndicate in 2014, with ringleader Segaran “Gerry’’ Subramaniam jailed for one year. Other players were fined $1500 for their involvement in the scam while the club itself was hit with a $10,000 fine. Players David Obaze was convicted and fined $3000 after pleading guilty to helping fix three games, while Joe Wolley and Reiss Noel were convicted and fined $1200 and $2000 respectively. The club itself was hit with a $10,000 fine. The charges centred on four matches in 2013, with rivals reportedly saying the match fixing efforts were “obvious”.

The Club was “at the centre of a competition manipulation consortium involving players

imported from the United Kingdom, Australian support staff, and an international criminal syndicate based in Singapore and Hungary,” the 2018 Wood review found.

ALL SPORTS: 2013

Then Sport Minister Jason Clare releasing the Australian Crime Commission investigation into the integrity of Australian sport, Febraury 7, 2013.

An Australian Crime Commission report on organised crime and drugs in sport noted “increasing evidence of personal relationships of concern between professional athletes and organised criminal identities and groups.”

These relationships “may have resulted in match fixing and the fraudulent manipulation of betting markets,” the report noted.

Jason Clare, the then federal sports minister, said professional sport in Australia was “highly vulnerable to infiltration by organised crime”.

NRL: 2010

Ryan Tandy.

Bulldogs prop Ryan Tandy was convicted of match fixing while playing for the Bulldogs against North Queensland in August 2010. He was sentenced to 12 months community service and fined $4000.

Tandy was exposed by Strike Force Suburb, a NSW State Crime Command unit formed to examine allegations of illegal betting activity.

Suspicions had been aroused after a betting plunge on North Queensland opening the scoring with a penalty goal – a practice known as “spot fixing”.

Tandy died of a prescription drug overdose in 2014.

CRICKET: 1994

How the Herald Sun reported on the Indian Bookmaker Scandal. Front page of the Herald Sun on December 10, 1998.

In 1998, the Australian Cricket Board revealed it had fined Shane Warne and Mark Waugh for making deals with a bookie known as “John the bookmaker” during Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka in 1994.

Warne and Waugh said they had been “naive and stupid” but denied being involved in match fixing.

The legendary Aussie spinner would later in his memoir: “The betting thing was something innocent that I got cleared of, I never did any match-fixing or anything like that — I didn’t even know the guy was a bookie.”

Originally published as Betting scandals that rocked Aussie sport