Australian board establishes betting safeguards

Betfair, a UK-based betting exchange, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cricket Australia. This allows Betfair to provide betting-related information that might help any future betting, match-fixing or cricket corruption investigation involving Australian players, officials or administrators.

Betfair already has similar agreements in place with organisations like the International Cricket Council, the Football Association (UK), the Association of Tennis Professionals and the UK Jockey Club. Betfair's registered users worldwide can use the Internet to wager on a variety of sports, including cricket. All bets on the system are tracked, as are all movements of funds.

James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive officer, said that he hoped neither party would never need to put the terms of the MoU into practice. However, it was signed as a contingency, should Cricket Australia ever need to investigate any betting related malpractice within its ranks. Cricket Australia has banned gambling on all types of cricket matches by its players, officials and other employees.

Existing privacy laws in the UK and Australia prevent Betfair from revealing information on betting activity, unless they make their customers aware of a signed agreement with an administrative body with which it wishes to share information. Both parties made it clear that the MoU doesn't involve any financial consideration.