From the streets in London Town where hooligans riot to the banisters in Spain where the earth trembles beneath an army of supporters that have all come out in support of their beloved heroes. It has no boundaries and it can’t be contained, sport carries a long history full of ups and downs propelled by one driving force; the fans.
Sport is undoubtedly one of the most powerful platforms in the world. With millions of followers buying into the culture, the lifestyle and nuanced traditions of their favourite teams, there is a lot of currency exchanging over the many various sporting platforms across the globe. Trading players for millions of dollars or acquiring new talent is one of the most expensive operations a franchise undertakes, it is undertaken because of the power that franchise has once that player shines in the club.
Big Sports Betting
There is nothing bigger in sports than a particular sporting disciplines World Cup. Online sports books and searching Australian tennis betting sites for odds exploded along with traditional betting outlets.
A World Cup event sees millions of US dollars spent and bet for the love of the game. It’s not just all legal betting either, many criminals use these platforms to hide their money from the authorities, effectively using sports betting as a way to launder money through a web of interconnected platforms whether land based or online.
The Sports Markets Value
So, how big is the sport betting market? Chris Eaton, the director at the International Centre for Sport Security values all markets, including illegal sports betting markets at over a trillion US dollars annually.
That’s a whopping load of bets; with this amount of money flowing through the sports betting realm annually it’s easy to see how criminals could take advantage of the system.
Organized Crime In Sport
Criminals use sports betting to move their money. In a new report it shows that criminals use sports betting to move approximately 140 billion US dollars annually. The report also suggests that 30% of that figure is money that passes through the Internet.
There is no real accountability system that monitors these transactions and it has led to major loopholes in the system. These loop holes have allowed criminals to pass through undetected, illegal bookmakers operating in grey areas take advantage of this and play bets on the illegal market and mitigate the risk by backing the other team in the legal market.
The report suggests that if an accountability system like the one set up in the financial market were to be implemented, it could greatly reduce illegal sports betting activity.
One Bet Wonder
One of the biggest events in sporting history saw one of the most outrageous instances of betting. This event was the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It’s a big talking point for many sports bettors who speculate that the final game could have seen as much as 1 billion US dollars in play around the globe.