Mobile Fuels Sports Betting Boom as Corruption Concerns Mount

Betting on mobile devices has been transforming global sports wagering much faster than regulators can react. They are flooding the industry with cash while potentially contributing to corruption scandals like those in the tennis world, say experts and insiders.

Recently, tennis authorities have failed to deal with widespread match-fixing that has rocked the game. This follows similar allegations that have blighted cricket, football, and other sports.

The ubiquity of tablets and smartphones has transformed bookmakers from operators of dingy, smoke-filled betting shops into multi-billion-dollar de facto tech companies. They are pouring large resources into developing apps, complex algorithms, and marketing to younger and broader demographics.

Scott Ferguson, a wagering industry consultant, said that players and gamblers are no longer restricted by geography or limited to choices from one betting company. There is also wall-to-wall sports coverage every day of the week from around the globe, beamed into people's homes and onto smartphones.

Professional gamblers and experts say that the biggest danger of mobile gambling intersecting with corruption lies in the ease of fixing one-on-one sports such as tennis, darts, or snooker.

Sally Gainsbury, a senior lecturer at Southern Cross University who has written a book on the subject, stated that mobile apps allowing in-game betting on individual points or games may enable athletes to stealthily manipulate results. This might seem less unethical to some than throwing an entire match.

A Perfect Combination

Most of the major bookmakers operate from small offshore jurisdictions, which makes accurate predictions of the industry’s worth extremely difficult, said Ms. Gainsbury.

She continued that there is a large grey offshore market, and in every country, it is not possible for governments to regulate sites based in these tiny remote jurisdictions. This means it is difficult to accurately measure how much people are betting because much of it is illegal.

Patrick Jay, a betting consultant and former sports and football director at Ladbrokes, has estimated that the global sports betting market is worth about $1 trillion annually and that it has doubled in size over the last five years. He expects it to double again over the next five years.

The Australian government, citing a 2015 United Nations conference where Mr. Jay was a speaker, has put the figure as high as $3 trillion, with about 90% being "illegal" or in contravention of gambling laws where the bet was placed.

This range of figures, including betting on sports such as football, tennis, or cricket, as well as less widely followed ones like snooker, darts, or table tennis (excluding horse racing), illustrates the difficulty in accurately valuing the overall market.

This growth results from mobile technology's ease of access and use, allowing people to place bets anywhere, anytime. Another aspect is the ease of using credit, with accounts run worldwide.

The leading bookmakers, including the Betfair Group PLC, Paddy Power PLC, Ladbrokes PLC, and William Hill PLC, didn’t respond to requests to comment. It must be noted that there have been no allegations of wrongdoing by any of these bookmakers over the tennis scandal.

Due to these match-fixing scandals and the boom in sports betting, countries such as Australia and others across the European Union are reviewing current laws, which Ms. Gainsbury and experts say are "hopelessly outdated". William Hill, an official partner of the Australian Tennis Open, has introduced a new "Bet-in-Play" feature for Australian customers, requiring access to a smartphone's microphone when placing bets to comply with such laws.