Paul Kent NRL 360 exclusive: Tim Simona to get life, NRL bans bets

PAUL KENT NRL 360 EXCLUSIVE: Wests Tigers player Tim Simona will receive a life ban as the NRL cracks down on a number of exotic betting markets.

Tim Simona is set to be banned for life as the NRL CEO Todd Greenberg cracks down on exotic betting markets.

LATER this week Tim Simona will walk in to League Central where he is expected to fall on his very sharp sword.

It will do him no good.

Simona currently stands accused of betting against himself, backing his opponent to be first tryscorer, the greatest act of treachery that can be committed in team sport.

At 25, he will be banned for life, his career over.

At such a young age, it is understandable to sympathise in a small way for Simona and his poor choices.

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Tim Simona is set to be banned for life as the NRL CEO Todd Greenberg cracks down on exotic betting markets.

What led a player to such steps? Why didn’t he fully grasp the repercussions of his actions?

And then you look at his teammates.

The Tigers missed the playoffs by a single competition point last season.

This at a club where coach Jason Taylor has to be a success or else his NRL coaching days are over.

Where the young careers of his playmakers would have benefited enormously from a finals appearance.

Simona was affecting all their careers and, understandably, Tigers players are angry.

He was also tinkering with something far greater.

Inch by inch, the NRL is taking steps to ensure the integrity of the game remains above question.

Without integrity and a belief in the result, the game is nothing.

So last month NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg sent an email to clubs, quietly and without fuss, warning them of their obligations surrounding gambling.

It followed the investigation into Simona that began last year and escalated in September when he was interviewed at league headquarters and denied the allegations against him.

Now, six months later and with the evidence against him overwhelming, it is expected Simona will confess to a gambling addiction and plead for mercy.

Greenberg will not listen. He cannot.

Allegations last year of match-fixing led to the subsequent formation of Strike Force Nuralda to investigate the claims, prompting Greenberg to state with considerable energy that anybody caught match fixing would be banned for life.

He cannot back down. The work did not finish there.

Greenberg took it a step further and told bookies over the summer the code was banning them from offering various exotic bets.

Gone are most runs head to head, most run metres head to head, over/under run metres, over/under tackles, player versus player points, 40/20 kicks, first try scoring options and team to trail in the match.

Greenberg knew all could be easily manipulated without suspicion and were a drama the game could do without.

Significantly, they also banned betting on under-20s games, where player-ins and -outs had enormous impact on the result. An early tip was akin to printing money.

Naturally the betting agencies fought back.

Their reason is simple.

Bookies learned long ago that the big money in punting was in the small money.

It sounds backward.

Where a first look suggests that the big punters are where bookies will make the most money, given the sheer size of their bets, the actual secret is volume.

All those five and 10 dollar bets add up to so much more.

The NRL is taking a tougher stance against betting agencies and the markets they offer.

So novelty bets were created to attract the punters. A lazy five here, another five there.

Problem was, the bets are so easily manipulated it created great headaches for the code.

Who could really tell whether a player was down on runs because he was off his game, or shut down by the opposition, or running dead?

So the bets are gone.

The opportunity for smoke and mirrors surrounding team selections has also been reduced.

Teams for round one were announced last night using the new system where a 21-man squad must be named before it gets pruned to 19 a whole 24 hours before kick-off.

Any club hoping to add a player not named must now get special exemption from the NRL.

Final line-ups do not have to be named until an hour before kick-off.

It is a step the right way for a game coming to terms with the sad reality of what is possible