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Results 'fixed' in betting swindle
Eamonn Duff, Jessica Halloran and Jacquelin Magnay | September 26, 2009
THE Sydney Roosters are bracing for a police investigation into an alleged betting scam surrounding the rugby league club's last home game of the season.
A bitter split has emerged at the eastern suburbs club over the circumstances of the round 26 game between the Roosters and the North Queensland Cowboys at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Bookmakers suspended betting three times before the game after a splurge of bets backed the Cowboys to win by more than 13 points. Extraordinarily, there was little interest in a straight Cowboys win.
The Herald is aware of one punter who outlaid $1500 after hearing, through Roosters associates, that a 13-point-plus loss was ''a sure thing''. He cashed in after the Roosters surrendered a 16-0 half-time lead to lose 32-16.
In the weeks since the September 6 game, players have been pointing fingers at each other and ostracising some teammates.
They are furious that a small group of Roosters ''celebrated'' the loss by visiting a brothel and enjoying the free services of prostitutes.
One player openly accused a teammate of getting some kind of kickback. ''I'm aware that several of the players have been up there [to the brothel] on a weekly basis throughout the year.
''On occasions they are receiving free services. I don't know why or how that works. Why you would want to involve yourself in those types of circles when you are a professional sportsman, I do not know.''
The player told the Herald he was stunned by claims within the club that results were being manipulated. But on reflection, he noted there was one player ''who would do it'', adding several others were young and impressionable. ''Now, looking back, I can't say that it didn't happen.''
Questions have been raised about several games but it is the circumstances surrounding the final home game that has everyone talking.
On the morning of the match, The Sun-Herald revealed that the nation's biggest sports agency, TAB Sportsbet, had suspended betting because of the weight of money on the Cowboys winning by more than 13 points.
''We've got a lot of worries about the betting activity on this game,'' a TAB spokesman, Glenn Munsie, said at the time.
Sources close to the club claim there has been an arrangement in place for several years involving a Roosters scout who offers to supplement the wages of younger players with bonus payments in order to aid exotic bets.
The source said that because those requests were not intended to alter the end result (rather influencing the losing margins or the half-time result), it was easier to draw the youngsters in.
''It's been happening for years. You can take it as being 120 per cent,'' he said.
The Roosters chief executive, Steve Noyce, said if every rumour in the code was investigated it would be a full-time job and that was not really the club's function.
''Brothels are legal. I am not aware of any specific allegation that any Roosters people are owed favours,'' he said. ''The bookies were stung and suddenly the talk is that players are throwing games.''
Under NRL rules it is illegal for players and officials to be involved in betting. It is also incumbent on anyone with information to come forward.
The NRL chief executive, David Gallop, said the NRL had initiated some early inquiries about the match - the only time it had done so all season - but did not have sufficient information to launch an investigation.
''If there was information, of course we would look at it and we would expect co-operation from the authorities.''
NSW police are adamant that nobody within their ranks has officially contacted the club and that a complaint from the public has not been lodged.
But the Herald understands at least one senior Roosters official has received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the police and warning them that players could be quizzed.
Eamonn Duff, Jessica Halloran and Jacquelin Magnay | September 26, 2009
THE Sydney Roosters are bracing for a police investigation into an alleged betting scam surrounding the rugby league club's last home game of the season.
A bitter split has emerged at the eastern suburbs club over the circumstances of the round 26 game between the Roosters and the North Queensland Cowboys at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Bookmakers suspended betting three times before the game after a splurge of bets backed the Cowboys to win by more than 13 points. Extraordinarily, there was little interest in a straight Cowboys win.
The Herald is aware of one punter who outlaid $1500 after hearing, through Roosters associates, that a 13-point-plus loss was ''a sure thing''. He cashed in after the Roosters surrendered a 16-0 half-time lead to lose 32-16.
In the weeks since the September 6 game, players have been pointing fingers at each other and ostracising some teammates.
They are furious that a small group of Roosters ''celebrated'' the loss by visiting a brothel and enjoying the free services of prostitutes.
One player openly accused a teammate of getting some kind of kickback. ''I'm aware that several of the players have been up there [to the brothel] on a weekly basis throughout the year.
''On occasions they are receiving free services. I don't know why or how that works. Why you would want to involve yourself in those types of circles when you are a professional sportsman, I do not know.''
The player told the Herald he was stunned by claims within the club that results were being manipulated. But on reflection, he noted there was one player ''who would do it'', adding several others were young and impressionable. ''Now, looking back, I can't say that it didn't happen.''
Questions have been raised about several games but it is the circumstances surrounding the final home game that has everyone talking.
On the morning of the match, The Sun-Herald revealed that the nation's biggest sports agency, TAB Sportsbet, had suspended betting because of the weight of money on the Cowboys winning by more than 13 points.
''We've got a lot of worries about the betting activity on this game,'' a TAB spokesman, Glenn Munsie, said at the time.
Sources close to the club claim there has been an arrangement in place for several years involving a Roosters scout who offers to supplement the wages of younger players with bonus payments in order to aid exotic bets.
The source said that because those requests were not intended to alter the end result (rather influencing the losing margins or the half-time result), it was easier to draw the youngsters in.
''It's been happening for years. You can take it as being 120 per cent,'' he said.
The Roosters chief executive, Steve Noyce, said if every rumour in the code was investigated it would be a full-time job and that was not really the club's function.
''Brothels are legal. I am not aware of any specific allegation that any Roosters people are owed favours,'' he said. ''The bookies were stung and suddenly the talk is that players are throwing games.''
Under NRL rules it is illegal for players and officials to be involved in betting. It is also incumbent on anyone with information to come forward.
The NRL chief executive, David Gallop, said the NRL had initiated some early inquiries about the match - the only time it had done so all season - but did not have sufficient information to launch an investigation.
''If there was information, of course we would look at it and we would expect co-operation from the authorities.''
NSW police are adamant that nobody within their ranks has officially contacted the club and that a complaint from the public has not been lodged.
But the Herald understands at least one senior Roosters official has received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the police and warning them that players could be quizzed.
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