Bookmakers will be taking bets across 28 sports during this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, but track and field will provide the highest profile markets. Yet while the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, drafted a betting ban for athletes earlier this year, the sport’s relationship with betting is historically ambivalent, and it tolerates both betting sponsorship and fantasy league games.

31/07/2008

The top official of one of the most important governing bodies in world sport favours the creation of international standards to apply to sports betting as an initial step toward the long-term goal of setting up a global organisation dedicated to overseeing the sector, but concedes there are obstacles in the way.

17/07/2008

The leading international motorcycling competition, MotoGP, is halfway through the 2008 season, with online betting company Bwin as the title sponsor of multiple Grand Prix events in Europe. Bwin is also the main sponsor of the MotoGP website in a sport whose world governing body showed itself to be ahead of the curve in jumping into the betting market early in Italy, where MotoGP betting is commonplace.

04/07/2008

This summer, table tennis will have its highest worldwide profile since the days of Ping Pong Diplomacy three decades ago. But betting remains a largely unexplored area for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), world governing body of one of the sports likely to be a focus of betting activity during this summer’s Olympic Games, particularly in China.

02/07/2008

As the Wimbledon tournament gets underway today, following weekend reports in the British press of suspected past match-fixing at the event, tennis authorities are weighing a list of more than a dozen specific recommendations by experts to combat the dangers of possible betting-related corruption in the sport.

23/06/2008

While sports such as athletics and football are set to attract the lion’s share of betting during the 2008 Summer Olympics, the focus of interest will also extend to smaller sports that are not normally top-of-mind for many fans or punters, at least in the West. Some, like badminton, are taking steps to pre-empt the attention of legal and illegal bookmakers.

20/06/2008

In a pair of parallel decisions that took the betting industry by surprise, a Paris court Friday, May 30, ruled that two online companies, Expekt and Unibet, must immediately stop accepting bets on the French Tennis Open currently in progress at Roland Garros.

02/06/2008

Partners in a new Colorado-based online gambling site are planning to launch a sports-based offer, including in-game selections, in the expectation of being permitted in some American jurisdictions as a “skill” game. In states that do not allow fantasy games of skill for cash tournaments, FantaZsports intends to make its product available to play for free.

09/05/2008

The International Olympic Committee will monitor betting patterns on Olympic sports for the first time in Beijing this summer. Concerned with suspicions of match-fixing in other sports, the IOC has signed a deal to implement the same early warning system used by football’s governing body FIFA to track betting on World Cup qualifying games.

28/04/2008

An effort is in progress, supported by an association of international sports federations, to establish a modus vivendi between sport and the betting industry based on voluntary collaboration rather than rights or legal structures. The initiative would create a mechanism for collecting and distributing payments from betting companies agreeing to take part.

23/04/2008

A court ruling in Austria has turned up the heat for reform of legislation banning online gaming in that country, but action by the European Commission may still be needed to bring about amendment of the current monopoly gambling regime.

18/04/2008

Sports’ uneasy relationship with the gambling industry has assumed a new dimension as it emerged this week that online betting operator Bwin is taking legal action against the French Tennis Federation for allegedly claiming that online gambling “presents a danger to the ethics of sport.” Bwin deny their claim is a response to the FTF’s own court case against several betting operators which begins today in Liège.

11/04/2008

The European Sports Security Association (ESSA) is poised to roll out a new software solution which, in conjunction with databases from partner sporting bodies, would make it possible to prevent athletes from betting on their own sports. The innovation is part of a new push by the organisation, which comprises 12 online betting companies, in its effort to become the world’s main body for ensuring the integrity of sports betting.

07/04/2008

Regulatory interest in pools betting in the United States has intensified with the explosion of activity on social networking sites such as Facebook during the NCCA College Basketball tournament, set to end next week. But while the site’s owners may face FBI scrutiny, observers doubt the political will exists to pursue what are essentially non-gambling businesses, however conspicuous they may be.

01/04/2008