Has the AFL Overstepped its Remit?

[Lucifers Hero 39,811]

AFL And Racing Victoria Monitoring Software

While on face value trying to catch 'dodgy' bets in 'real time' is a good thing, the AFL has taken 50% ownership in Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Ltd (SWIM) and a number of its executives are directors.  

imv this goes a million miles beyond monitoring AFL player and club official bets on AFL games - I would guess <2,000 people.  Yet this monitoring program reaches across all aspects of betting in Australia.   

My read is the AFL is in this to make money ie other sporting codes and racing codes pay to use the system.  This would give the AFL access to information about millions of people not just the ~2,000 involved AFL clubs

Apparently, the AFL contract with Bet Easy is about to expire and it is negotiating with other companies to determine who its 'wagering partner' will be.  My head is racing (excuse the pun) with all the possible conflict of interests that come into play if this monitoring system happens.  Not to mention access to private data about citizens the AFL has no right to access. 

imv such a system should be developed and run by the government regulator without involvement from any sporting body. 

How is the AFL Commission taking the AFL (supposedly a sport) so far outside its remit?  If it ever had a remit it is now a law unto itself!  Gill already has serious conflicts of interest with broadcasters, wagering etc.  This system would entrench the AFL further into the gambling quagmire. 

Would prefer to see the AFL invest in developing the game not on 'new revenue streams' that have nothing to do with the great game of Aussie Rules. 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Lucifer's Hero

[ding 5,126]

How about investing time in rule changes that make scoring easier.... i dunno, something like a 6-6-6 setup maybe..........

The AFL will ALWAYS have its financial interests at the forefront of all it does.

Everything else is just spin.

 

ps, Bet responsibly*

[Willmoy1947 4,089]

Does anyone else get that feeling, more so this year, that scores are being satisfied before the games have even ended??

[beelzebub 23,376]

the short answer is the AFL over-steps everywhere and everything.  It's so being stuffing up everything that was once iconic about OUR game it has forgotten it was only mandated to manage the game on behalf of the clubs,not dictate to all and sundry.

The hypocrisy of the AFL knows no bounds

[Diamond_Jim 12,588]

Not quite on topic but a very good read:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/22/whats-behind-the-afls-sudden-insistence-that-the-game-has-indigenous-beginnings

"In 1998 the AFL dedicated a monument to Wills at Moyston, close to where he lived as a child. It reads, “While playing as a child with Aboriginal children in this area he developed a game which he later utilised in the formation of Australian Football.”

Yet as recently as 2017, presented with new documentary evidence by historian Jenny Hocking that Marn Grook was played where Wills was raised (this was previously said by Hibbins and others to be most unlikely) the AFL said, “The debate is really one between historians as to what Wills was exposed to.”

[RalphiusMaximus 6,053]

3 hours ago, beelzebub said:

the short answer is the AFL over-steps everywhere and everything.  It's so being stuffing up everything that was once iconic about OUR game it has forgotten it was only mandated to manage the game on behalf of the clubs,not dictate to all and sundry.

The hypocrisy of the AFL knows no bounds

Sums it up nicely.  +1 

[monoccular 17,430]

6 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

AFL And Racing Victoria Monitoring Software

While on face value trying to catch 'dodgy' bets in 'real time' is a good thing, the AFL has taken 50% ownership in Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Ltd (SWIM) and a number of its executives are directors.  

......

Which 50%?

Almost certainly the first 50% - the  Sports Wagering bit and not the Integrity Monitoring