Puzzle over betting ban

Soccer player gets two weeks as cricketer cops three months

FOOTBALL Tasmania chief executive Matt Bulkeley has warned of the dangers of comparing sanctions across different sports after a Tasmanian soccer player was banned for betting on his own games.

The national governing body, Football Federation Australia, has banned a Tasmanian player for two games and fined him $5000 for betting on a number of games, with another two-game ban and $5000 suspended.

The name of the player, the competition and the amount or number of bets was not disclosed by FFA.

By contrast, Hobart Hurricane Emily Smith copped a three-month ban (effectively 11 games) by Cricket Australia for posting a video of the team list on Instagram prior to a match in Burnie, with another ninemonths suspended.

The footballer — who it is believed plays in a northern Tasmanian competition below the top league, NPL Tasmania — only bet on his side winning, ruling out match-fixing allegations, as well as NPL Tasmania and NPL Victoria matches.

“It is pretty hard to compare these situations, especially across sports,” Mr Bulkeley said.

“I’m not privy to all the details that happened with the cricketer and nor am I across their various codes of conduct.

“What I do know is the sanctions for this player were fairly consistent with other sanctions of other players at similar levels who have been found guilty of the same sort of activity.

“There is a consistency there, but I do think it is a bit dangerous to compare the two, though I understand why there would be that comparison given the timing.”

Mr Bulkeley said the investigation was conducted by FFA with no involvement from FT.

He said FT had a e-learning module in place for all NPL Tasmania and Women’s State League players around betting and their obligations to the sport.

“It is hard to know whether it is one off or not,” he said.

“The rules are very clear that the FFA national code of conduct and the associated FFA sports betting and match fixing guidelines are very clear on what basically is and isn’t allowed.”

He admitted to being surprised that betting agencies would offer markets on competitions below NPL Tasmania.

“Not that I’m a betting person myself, but it is surprising the kind of betting markets that do exist around the place and the way betting can occur on things in a game,” he said.

“The betting operators have markets and it is difficult for us to influence for that.

“It is just a matter for us continuing to educate our players on what their obligations are and our rules and code of conduct.”