Wherever gambling takes place the door to corruption always opens and sadly for the cricket world the door has exploded open. The current allegations of match fixing provide extraordinary reading for a basic non follower of the game, such as myself. While reading an article about this massive problem I could not help wondering how a non follower of horseracing must have pondered over the hysteria involving Betfair a couple of years ago.At one stage Betfair was being blamed as the beginning of th

Wherever gambling takes place the door to corruption always opens and sadly for the cricket world the door has exploded open. The current allegations of match fixing provide extraordinary reading for a basic non follower of the game, such as myself. While reading an article about this massive problem I could not help wondering how a non follower of horseracing must have pondered over the hysteria involving Betfair a couple of years ago.

At one stage Betfair was being blamed as the beginning of the end for horserace betting, and even the industry, because you could bet on a horse to lose a race. The fact you could already do this by backing every other runner to beat a favourite, the usual "choice" for skullduggery, was seemingly beyond the basic mathematics of Betfairs detractors. We even had the most ridiculous of all statements by Robert Nason, then head of the Victorian TAB, that the Spring carnival should be shut down to stop the advance of Betfair into the Australian betting arena! Holy Batman!

I have always stated from day one that Betfair is the best "product" for the average punter I have ever seen in horseracing in my 40 odd years of involvement. Not only are the odds clearly better but you also have the opportunity to play bookmaker as well. Finally, bookmakers are starting to show serious courage and are betting far more competitively than in the old days when they metaphorically "stuck it up the punters" with their poor percentage figures. The old guard of sheep followers have moved on and the new brigade are taking Betfair on and this is good for the life blood of horseracing, the punter.

It will only be a matter of time before every keen punter will be walking around with Ipads, and the like, logging into Betfair while they stroll around shopping, drinking coffee or even gardening.. All that is stopping the average punter is operational knowledge (not an issue for most) , cost (an issue for most) and confidence in the product (from all reports not a major issue).

One wonders whether the cricket scandal could have been averted if the only betting to take place on the game came from registered corporate bookmakers, the TAB (OTB) venues and Betfair where the word transparency would have to be THE word of their business. From what I have read it seems like the days of the Wild West are the norm for punters in India, Pakistan and other countries in the vicinity and the world cricket authorities need to enact some deep thinking. They could do no worse than seeking the help of Betfair as then any obtuse betting patterns will light up like a Christmas neon sign and scandals such as the current one will be less likely to be instigated.