AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sven Burchartz and Jessica Bell, Kalus Kenny Intelex
Regulation of the Betting Activities of Professional Athletes
support of the Cricket Australia board and was reportedly forced to stand down from his cap - taincy. He has not played in the Australian side since, retiring from first-class cricket in March 2023. Notably, where athletes are engaged in a team sport where “team orders” may impact the final result of a competition, these team orders may not be a breach of the rules and regulations of that specific sport. For example, in Glenn Allerton v Mike Jones & Cru Halliday (with Motorcycling Australia), the National Sports Tribunal found that although the respondents acted together to alter the result of a race during the Austral - ian Superbike Championship in 2023, they did so upon team orders which is not in breach of Motorcycling Australia’s policies. 1.3 Betting No National Authority Regulating Sports Betting in Australia Sports betting is not illegal in Australia, and there is no single overarching statute or authority reg - ulating gambling activities, including betting, in the country. Sports betting is, however, separately regulated by way of a series of federal statutes and by separate legislative frameworks in each of Aus - tralia’s eight mainland states and territories. By way of example, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission Act 2011 provides for the creation of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC, formerly known as the Victorian Commission for Gam - bling and Liquor Regulation), which is empow - ered to regulate the gambling and liquor indus - tries in Victoria.
The betting activities of professional athletes are often regulated to a greater extent than those of non-athletes by the regulating body of their particular sport. The AFL, for example, prohib - its players from betting on AFL matches, and in 2022 fined a player AUD5,000 and banned him from playing for two matches after he placed bets on 10 games during the 2021 AFL season. The AFL also saw a betting scandal involv - ing match umpires in 2022 where votes for the Brownlow Medal (which is awarded to the AFL’s best and fairest player in a season) were leaked by an umpire. The umpire in question subsequently lost his job with the AFL and was arrested by Victoria Police. In response, the AFL introduced new regulations relating to betting activities from 2023, includ - ing setting an AUD250 payout limit for round- by-round betting, prohibiting any AFL staff from placing bets and allowing for on-the-spot audits at any time. Similarly, in early 2024, a group of A-League (soccer) players from a Sydney-based club were charged over an alleged betting corruption scan - dal. Police allege that an organised crime figure from South America instructed club captain, Ulises Davila, to deliberately earn yellow cards during multiple matches between November 2023 and May 2024, with Davila paying two of his teammates up to AUD10,000 each for their involvement. The players have all been suspend - ed by Football Australia pending resolution of the matters in court.
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