PR: SPORTINGBET - Integrity key in Premiership success

[Casinomeister]

Integrity key in Premiership success

"For the betting industry, the need has never been greater for clear and coherent codes of practice and regulated legal frameworks in every territory around the world."That is the view of Sportingbet Plc's executive director, Mark Blandford speaking ahead of his appearance at European i-Gaming Congress and Exhibition (EiG) which takes place between 11th and 13th October in Barcelona.

He added: "We are fortunate in the UK to have legal, transparent, regulated bookmaking which can identify irregular betting patterns quickly and produce audit trails accurately. It's an industry personality that also sits very comfortably alongside the fact that our territories' elite sporting competition, the English Premiership, is among the most credible sporting competitions, and most eagerly bet on, in the world. The Premiership's unparalleled televised coverage is one reason but the second is that the competition has a well-earned reputation for veracity. That integrity is underpinned by the fact that the colossal wages paid to players means contaminating results or performances is prohibitively expensive to all but the super, super rich."

The Premiership may, as Blandford rightly notes, have retained its integrity while, over the last two seasons, the domestic leagues of Germany and Italy have become the subject of investigation, but surely the increasingly predictability of the top four places in the English top flight will have a detrimental impact on betting revenue?

Blandford retorted: "Football, and football betting has never been more popular and there's little reason to suggest that the repeated success of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal will diminish either of those things. Modern punters have more ways to bet on football, more types of bet to make and more access to information to guide their choices than ever before. I think you've also got to recognise that different teams, and the supporters of those teams whose football betting choice is often linked to their club allegiance, have different levels of ambition: will Sheffield United or Watford stay up? Will Spurs, Villa or Bolton finish in the top six? Everything is up for grabs. Anyway, if you think you know who's going to finish top of the Premiership now, I very much welcome you to have a bet," Blandford concluded.

Mark Blandford is joined by some of the world's top i-gaming CEO's at the can't-miss closing plenary session for EiG 2006. They include Mitch Garber, PartyGaming; John Anderson, 888.com; Detlef Train, Intertops Sportwetten GmbH; Roger Raatgever, Microgaming and Dietmar Knochelmann, Gateway Payment Solutions Ltd.

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