Hello and welcome to GamblingCompliance’s podcast on a day that has seen world attention focused almost exclusively on the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing.

That this summer’s Olympics are unquestionably the most geo-politically important since the Moscow 1980 Games has only added to the media frenzy surrounding the three-week event – but on a purely sporting level, the Beijing Olympics seem well poised to deliver a feast for sports fans around the globe.

Will US swimming sensation Michael Phelps secure Olympic immortality in winning a record eight gold medals in one single Games?

Could the host Chinese team even topple the United States at the top of the Olympic medal table?

And will home favourite Liu Xiang hold off the challenge of Cuban world record holder Dayron Robles in what promises to be a pressure-cooker of an Olympic final in the 110 metres hurdles?

All these questions, and more, of course bode well for the international betting industry, as oddsmakers furiously draw up markets on sporting contests great and small in a bid to plug into Olympic fever.

The likes of Ladbrokes, Betfair and Bwin have all said they will be opening markets across all 28 Olympic sports – a far wider and, they hope, profitable offering than during the Athens Games four years ago.

It is little wonder, then, that betting has grabbed the attention of the International Olympic Committee, which is as desperate to preserve the integrity of the Games’ sporting contests as the Chinese are to project a positive image of the host country to an international audience.

This year’s Games will see the IOC directly monitoring betting patterns on Olympic events for the first time, thanks to a deal with a subsidiary company of international football’s overlords FIFA and a memorandum of understanding signed last week with betting exchange Betfair.

IOC executives earlier this year met with former police officers who had previously advised the International Cricket Council on integrity issues, and have agreed to use FIFA’s Early Warning System to keep a track of all Olympic betting over the next few weeks.

Furthermore, the IOC has tightened its entry rules for competitors, who have each signed a form stating that they will not “participate in, support or promote betting related to the Olympic Games.”

Athletes or teams found to have violated the betting ban face the same possible sanctions as for doping – exclusion from the Olympics and the loss of any medals obtained in relation to the relevant infringement.

But with such a wide range of sports on offer, the ordinary punters will be spoilt for choice.

For many, however, the Olympics really means track and field athletics - which is precisely where the bookies see most of the action going.

“Athletics will definitely be the main focus of betting on the Olympics, with most of the activity online,” confirmed a spokesman for Ladbrokes, adding that Ladbrokes expects the Games’ single biggest betting event to be the men’s 100 metres final – a likely three-way showdown between the US’s Tyson Gay and Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Usein Bolt.

Athletics has enjoyed a historically ambivalent relationship with betting down the years, with the 19th Century forbearers of today’s multi-billion dollar global betting industry even playing an indirect role in the establishment of the modern-day Olympic movement in the late 1800s.

In a recent interview with GamblingCompliance, a representative from the International Association of Athletics Federations explained that professional athletics first flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries mainly due to the popularity of betting on race outcomes.

Pro athletics then floundered, however, because the sport lost all credibility thanks to the malign influence of crooked gambling rings, he said.

This stain of betting corruption in turn led to the foundation of the IAAF and the modern Olympics’ emphasis on amateur competition.

It seems, then, that Olympic athletics has completed a full lap of the track in terms of its relationship with betting.

And the IAAF, like the IOC, is wary that new scandals could come to taint the sport once again.

As the association’s spokesman explained, “For athletics, it is clear that betting is something that must be carefully regulated.

“The key issue today is to prohibit insiders from betting on the sport, since there is the potential for rigged results – but also to keep a close eye on what is happening in the betting industry.

“We need to work closely with other sports and the IOC on this important issue.”

The industry will no doubt keep its own watchful eye on events in Beijing over the next 3 weeks – but, for now, let the Games, and the gambling, commence…