A Closer Look at Fair Sports Bets

The world's largest betting company, Betfair, has earned its fair share of publicity recently with the tennis match-fixing scandal. The company has voided all bets, which accumulated to $7 million, during a match between top Russian player Nikolay Davydenko and 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Argüello of Argentina.

It was concerned that the wagers, favoring the lower seed Argentine, were part of illegal activity. Davydenko suspiciously quit in the third set citing an injury.

Betfair has an obligation to the sports it offers bets on, responsibility that comes with its 90% market share. Betfair and other betting exchanges stand to lose their entire business would the sports become open to outside influences, other than clear and objective athletic factors.

Yet, betting exchanges are a sensible means for criminal elements to fix sporting events. Massive bets can be placed anonymously over the web, instead of placed with a bookie at daylight. On Betfair you can offer odds to other bettors, i.e. if you have inside information you can offer comfortable odds against your side and let people think they are getting a good deal.

Betfair confronts such threats of match fixing by maintaining an open policy and sharing its detailed records with professional sports organizations and governments in questionable or suspicious cases.

It was the betting exchange itself that traced the suspect betting patterns on the tennis game and voided the bets on its own discretion.

So the question whether Betfair is fair or not, remains open. It is in the gamblers' best interest, as well as in the company's interest, to keep it clean. We'll let its track record will have to speak for itself.