Are betting companies creating a gambling problem for footballers?
Sunday 18 November 2018 13:24, UK
Bookmakers have "created problems for themselves" by allowing people to bet on transfer moves, according to the Daily Mail's Martin Samuel.
Samuel has called for changes to the betting market in football after Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge was charged this week with misconduct by the FA.
The charge relates to alleged breaches of betting rules surrounding Sturridge's loan move to West Brom in January before he returned to Liverpool at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Gambling in football was on the agenda for the Sunday Supplement panel and Daily Mail chief sports writer Samuel believes footballers need more protection from the current individual markets that are open.
"When he's asked by his family about his career, and where he's going, what is he meant to do?" Samuel said on Sturridge. "What are you meant to do as a professional footballer?
"A third party starts a market on your career, where you're going to go, what you're going to do. Sturridge hasn't asked any bookmakers to open a book on where he's going.
"They have chosen to do that. And for that reason he's got to take a vow of silence in January so that if his mum says to him, 'what are your plans, Daniel?' he can't tell her just in case she tells somebody else and that person puts a bet on?
"That's fundamentally wrong. The easiest sports that can be fixed are individual sports: tennis, snooker, darts, anything that's individual, you can get to the one person involved and you can fix that game.
"It's really hard to fix in football unless you somehow turn it into an individual sport, and that is what bookmakers are trying to do all the time, asking where this player will go. Who is the next manager to be sacked, these are individual bets over which one person has control. So they have created this problem themselves."
Liverpool say Sturridge 'has stated categorically that he has never gambled on football' and the 29-year-old has until 6pm on November 20 to respond to the charge.
Samuel believes the solution is for betting companies to eradicate individual markets involving players and managers, due to the fact they are open to corruption.
He added: "If you want to bet on England to beat Croatia today then go ahead, but if you want to bet on Gareth Southgate eating a ham sandwich today on the touchline, well there's only one person in control of that bet, and that means that bet is open to corruption so why would you create that market?
"I'm very dubious that you can get a £10,000 bet on Daniel Sturridge to be transferred to a club. I would wager that if you phoned a bookmaker, and tried to put £10,000 on an individual transfer taking place, they wouldn't take it.
"I'm just very sceptical about the idea that you can place £10,000 on an individual transfer, because I know people who tried to bet on horses that were 4/5 and couldn't get on. Bookmakers don't like it if you win, and they are creating these markets that are open to exploitation and then crying foul when they're exploited."
