Australia targets offshore wagering threat with major sporting events on horizon
The threat of organised crime and the emergence of new offshore wagering havens in tiny jurisdictions such as Vanuatu will be a focus of Australia’s largest gathering of sports integrity professionals this week, as the nation prepares to host at least one major international sporting event each year in the run up to the 2032 Brisbane Games.Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) will bring together the codes, law enforcement agencies and wagering companies with the goal of establishing a major events taskforce on Wednesday, following a separate Victoria Police summit on Tuesday featuring 200-plus integrity experts.Although there has been cooperation for previous events such as the 2015 men’s Asian Cup and 2023 Women’s World Cup, the new arrangements reflect SIA’s new co-ordination role under sports integrity treaty the Macolin Convention, amid heightened awareness of the cross-border character of illegal wagering.James Moller, head of strategy and international policy at SIA, said it is “well understood” what to do when an alert arrives from local wagering partners around suspicious betting within domestic sport, but interstate and international collaboration can be less straightforward.“You could have athletes arriving in Western Australia, in New South Wales, in Queensland, you could have gambling happening in a different state or territory, and the sports betting environment is truly global,” Moller said.
“It really is about making sure that you’re across the right pieces of intelligence that are coming in and getting them to the right stakeholders in a timely fashion, especially because the timeframes are so short with these major events,”The A-League Men has been the target of two recent match-fixing plots involving players from Macarthur and Western United, and local football has become an international target,The Asian Cup will bring 11 teams to Australia from across Asia, made up mostly of semi-professional female players who present different integrity challenges to local officials,“There are differences in women’s sport in terms of player salaries, potentially levels of integrity education that players receive, athletes arriving from a variety of countries that we might not see in a different sport so, for example, it might be a different conversation if it was a taskforce meeting before a Rugby League World Cup or a Cricket World Cup,” Moller said,“The idea would be to tailor the conversation to each tournament.
”The meetings come days after The Play The Game sports transparency conference in Finland, attended by multiple Australian speakers, heard explosive details about the increasing mobility of offshore gambling providers.Crackdowns in traditional international betting jurisdictions such as Curacao, the Isle of Man and the Philippines have driven illegal providers towards emerging authorities.Growing players include Anjouan in the Indian Ocean, Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, Canadian First Nation regulatory bodies in Tobique and Kahnawake, and Vanuatu, which launched its gaming authority last year offering licenses from €5,000 ($AU8,900), payable by bitcoin.“What really worries me as much as anything is that this landscape that I’m talking about, which has changed beyond all recognition, we have no way of controlling it,” investigative journalist Phillipe Auclair told the conference, revealing how these jurisdictions have issued hundreds of licences in recent years.Sign up to Australia SportGet a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports deskafter newsletter promotion“Every time we knock one of those on the head, like you’ve done in the Isle of Man, there’s another place which appears and in which these people find a shelter and a way to carry on their business.
”Lindsey Kennedy, research director at The Eyewitness Project, said companies in the offshore wagering market were connected to organised crime and human trafficking in countries like Cambodia.“Last year, the Philippines announced a ban on all offshore gambling companies,” she said.“Instead of shutting down though, many just migrated to Cambodia.”Sport Integrity Australia’s Karina Chilman, assistant director for major sporting events and international engagement, and Linda Muir, head of sport engagement, also presented at the conference.The Women’s Asian Cup next year is the first in a series of major international tournaments due to arrive on Australian shores, including the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups, men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cups, the 2028 T20 World Cup, and the 2032 Olympic Games.
Some, like the rugby league and cricket events, involve working with international co-hosts,The symposium on Tuesday includes a keynote address from former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent, who was banned in 2014 for match-fixing,Victoria Police assistant commissioner Cindy Millen said Australian competitions remain a focus of both domestic and international match-fixing syndicates,“Investigations into this type of criminality require law enforcement agencies both across the country and internationally to respond with a coordinated approach, incorporating all our partners,” she said, adding the focus remains on “mitigating the risk of infiltration by organised crime”,
Global financial system vulnerable to shocks amid recent stock market surge, Bank of England chief warns – as it happened
The global financial system is vulnerable to shocks amid a recent surge in the price of shares and other assets, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned.Bailey, chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the fiscal risk watchdog for the G20 group of nations, urged greater multilateral co-operation between nations to help support global financial systems.In a letter to G20 ministers, he said that increased debt levels and a failure to fully implement agreed financial reforms would lead to increased vulnerability.Bailey cautioned that there could be a “disorderly adjustment”, i.e
Markets rebound amid latest US-China tariff spat as traders look to possible ‘Taco trade’
Global stock markets have edged higher and cryptocurrencies rebounded amid signs that a new front in the US-China trade war may not be as severe as first feared.Tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated again on Friday and over the weekend, as Donald Trump threatened to impose additional US tariffs of 100% on China starting next month.The US president accused the country of “very hostile” moves to restrict exports of rare-earth minerals needed for American industry. Beijing said it would retaliate if Trump did not back down.However, Trump and senior US officials opened a door to a possible deal with China on Sunday
UK MPs urged to investigate TikTok’s plans to cut 439 content moderator jobs
Trade unions and online safety experts have urged MPs to investigate TikTok’s plans to make hundreds of jobs for UK-based content moderators redundant.The video app company is planning 439 redundancies in its trust and safety team in London, leading to warnings that the jobs losses will have implications for online safety.The Trades Union Congress, Communication Workers Union and leading figures in online safety have signed an open letter to Chi Onwurah MP, the Labour chair of the science, innovation and technology committee, calling for an investigation into the proposals.The letter warns the cuts could expose children to harmful content, citing estimates from the UK’s data watchdog that up to 1.4 million TikTok users are under 13
Google won’t reveal if it is lobbying Trump about YouTube’s inclusion in Australia’s under-16s ban
Google has told parliament that Australia’s under-16s social media ban will be “extremely difficult to enforce”, but won’t say if it is lobbying the Trump administration about YouTube’s inclusion ahead of Anthony Albanese’s US visit.On Monday, Google and Microsoft appeared before a Senate inquiry on a range of age assurance and verification requirements being applied to social media and other aspects of the internet including search.Google’s senior manager of government affairs and public policy in Australia and New Zealand, Rachel Lord, told the inquiry the under-16s ban – which is expected to include YouTube – will have “unintended consequences” and won’t make children safer.Sign up: AU Breaking News email“The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online,” Lord told the inquiry.“YouTube has invested heavily in designing age-appropriate products and industry leading content controls and tools that allow parents to make choices for their families
Smith-Schuster left with bloody nose after Lions-Chiefs ends in ‘childish’ brawl
The Detroit Lions’ matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs was expected to be feisty, but few thought it would end in a literal fight on Sunday night.The Chiefs had started the season poorly, by their high standards, and were coming off a painful loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. But they dominated the Lions, who have suffered a string of injuries to their defense, on both sides of the ball to secure a 30-17 victory and move to 3-3 for the season.But the evening ended with players from both teams flooding the field after a fight started for the most petty of reasons. Lions safety Brian Branch refused to return a handshake from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes after the game ended
Brydon Carse reveals Stokes and Wood are close to 100% and ‘raring to go’ for Ashes
Ben Stokes and Mark Wood are expected to be “raring to go” for the start of the Ashes next month, offering England a timely boost that sits in contrast to Australia’s ongoing concerns over the fitness of Pat Cummins.As the two seamers with prior experience of playing Test cricket in Australia, Stokes and Wood are central to England’s plans this winter. Stokes missed the fifth Test against India with a shoulder injury, however, while Wood sat out the entire English summer following knee surgery back in March.Things appear to be coming together, at least, with the pair recently training in the heated outdoor nets at Loughborough alongside their Durham teammate, Brydon Carse. While Cummins says he is “unlikely” to be ready for the first Test in Perth that starts on 21 November due to his lower back stress issue, England could have a full complement of seamers at their disposal
‘It’s really good for the staff’: how restaurants adapt to customers drinking less
Helen Goh’s recipe for pumpkin cheesecake with maple pecan brittle | The sweet spot
Melbourne bar ranked best in Australasia and 19 in world
Why bag-in-box wines are here to stay | Hannah Crosbie on drinks
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for red peppers stuffed with orzo, tuna, capers and herbs | A kitchen in Rome
Strong flat white for Batman: should I use a ‘coffee name’?