Sport is made for betting

Changes occurring in the sponsorship of English competitions with E.ON ending their FA Cup deal and Coca-Cola not renewing their six-year sponsorship of the Football Leagues. Football League seeking new sponsor But the key part for me was right at the tail.... E.ON is ending its sponsorship deal with the FA Cup at the end of the season. E.ON's four-year deal was understood to be worth £32 million, which English football's governing body will be keen to recoup. Betting firm bwin has been linked with the FA Cup title sponsorship and the Austrian company has made it known to the FA that it would consider a bid to replace E.ON. Very interesting!

Apologies for the lack of posting this last week, but have had all my time diverted to my lovely new baby daughter, born 21/9. Life has changed forever :)

Short article in today's Racing Post about Kempton and Channel 4 discussing Saturday morning racing, as early as 8.40am to coincide with the Morning Line programme. What do you think? I can't see the harm in trying. Obviously it won't be for everyone and I doubt you'll see any Group races, but that's much as the same as Wednesday night on the polytrack anyway. Betting shops are open, a lot of folks are up and about at that hour and it might even be easier in traffic around that area. And industry people are up ridiculously early anyway. It might crash and burn, it might prove a master stroke - either way I think it's worth a go especially if there is terrestrial TV coverage behind it. Being able to spend the night before looking at a proper formguide (as is the norm back in Australia) is a huge plus from me. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

In the light of the Renault scandal in Formula 1, Bloodgate in rugby union, and football scandals such as the one Juventus was relegated for in Serie A, is it too easy for sporting authorities to blame gambling for all its integrity problems? Fair enough, there are obviously some issues with it, but ever since there has been a prize for winning a competition, people have found devious ways to win, or stop others from winning. Look at scandals in kids' beauty pageants, flower growing contests , elections, tanking for better draft picks etc - where someone has something to gain, cheating will never be far away. And that's without even discussing drugs in sport. Biggest threat to Sports Integrity comes from within While no one can argue that manipulation of sports by betting syndicates does not exist, the reality is that the most concerted efforts at manipulation are made by criminal elements via illegal bookmakers, and not as it is suggested, by online gamblers who in the majori...

Cardiff City FC showed that wisdom and commercial acumen aren't amongst their fortes with this deal. Unlicensed 777Ball Told to Suspend Football Sponsorship Days after signing a one-year shirt sponsorship agreement with 777ball.com, Football League Championship side Cardiff City FC has been forced to remove its sponsor's logo from shirts, after the Gambling Commission warned that the Asian online gaming operator had not obtained a UK operating licence which would enable it to advertise in the country. Has anyone ever heard of them? Apparently they have a licence in the Philippines, in the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation. They don't have a UK licence and the Philippines isn't a country of the UK Gambling Commission's White List of territories outside the European Union, implying naivety at its best from both the club and the bookmaker. The bookmaker says it will now apply for the relevant licence - good luck getting that before next season then!

Am I the only one that casts a wry smile over these types of incidents? - Flavio Briatore has to fall on his sword when sacked driver Nelson Piquet Jr gets his own back by blowing the whistle on being instructed to crash in the Singapore Grand Prix last year to help his team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race. After initial denials and threats of lawsuits, a newspaper gets hold of the transcripts and suddenly the facts come out.... - Serena Williams getting a point penalty for threatening an official at the US Open and thus losing the match. Not just any match, but a Grand Slam semi-final. Had she not destroyed a racuet earlier in the match, she may have even got away with it. Whether the line judge was correct or not with the call(I still haven't seen any camera angle which proves it either way), no sporting official should ever be threatened like that, and she should have been defaulted for that alone. Using American sport as an example, she'd have been suspended for months if...

Of all the markets that could as bad taste, surely this takes the cake. Paddy Power were taking bets on which Anfield footballer would be burgled next. As if you need to provide incentives for Scouser criminals! Liverpool condemn Paddy Power bets on player burglaries After furious protests from fans and Liverpool FC, Paddy Power initially defended the bets as "tongue-in-cheek fun", but the online bookmaker has now agreed to suspend betting. On Wednesday a Liverpool spokesperson described the bookmaker's stunt as "completely tasteless and disgraceful." Bear in mind here, that Paddy Power were the official betting partner of Liverpool FC as well. Until today that is, when their agreement expires with a sour conclusion. It is believed that Betfair will be taking over 'official betting partner' status, adding to their blue-chip partners of Barcelona and Manchester United, all signed this season.

Betfair love promoting their young sponsored poker stars - the only problem is, when one of them has an online handle of 'Annette_15', it's very easy to look upon her as being underage, or at least the company is encouraging underage gambling. Betting ad banned for encouraging underage gambling Seriously, you'd thought someone would have been able to figure that one out in-house without needing to be embarrassed by it. The username is a giveaway and she doesn't exactly look 30 in that photo. Drop the reference to the username and the ad is probably fine. It can always be referenced elsewhere on the site, rather than in the part answerable to strict advertising standards. The story goes that soon-to-be 21yo Annette Obrestad, winner of the World Series of Poker Europe 2007, when she had just turned 19, began playing poker online when she was just 15 - not at Betfair I care to add. She played only play for fun events (which still should have been prohibited as a ...

The stubborn Australian Racing Board and the Australian Jockeys' Association went head-to-head over the changes to the whip rules brought in on August 1 in Australia. Jockeys were rightfully frustrated about a major change to the rule which would bring about a suspension for them if they used the whip too many times in the closing stages, trying to win the race, yet the result wouldn't be overturned - so they'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jockeys walked out across Australia last Thursday, stopping several race meetings during the day, and threatened further action. The spring carnival was never realistically under threat, but the jockeys wanted the issue sorted out before the big stakes were on the table. Jockeys, ARB reach whip compromise My query is, in six or so seconds that it takes for the last 100m, how many times more could a jockey whip a horse anyway?