Sports betting cheats

In a previous bulletin, we flagged recent sportsbetting scares from Ireland and Bulgaria, but these were apparently augmented over the weekend by further alarms in diverse sports from the UK to the United States.
In America, the newspaper USA Today reported that Adam Cuomo, a former Toledo running back, admitted he helped set up a betting scheme aimed at influencing the outcome of football and men’s basketball games between 2003 and 2006, according to court documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Detroit last week.
The five-page affidavit also included information gleaned from wiretaps of Ghazi “Gary” Manni, a self-described gambler from Detroit who has been at the centre of all of the US government’s lengthy investigation. Such filings often precede criminal charges.
And in Britain, the Telegraph reported that two bookmakers suspended betting on Sunday’s game between Grays Athletic and Forest Green Rovers after betting patterns raised their suspicions.
Blue Square and William Hill suspended betting on the match after a large number of wagers were placed on Grays to win after trailing at half-time. Grays won 2-1 after going 1-0 down in the first 45 minutes.
“We’ll be reporting this to the FA on Monday to ask how we progress,” a Blue Square spokesman told BBC Sport. “We are withholding stakes in line with our regulations.”
Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe said: “We saw a most unusual betting pattern on this match involving a large number of requests for bets on Grays to be losing at half-time and winning at full-time.”
Grays scored twice in just 50 second-half seconds to come from behind and beat Forest Green 2-1 in the Blue Square Premier game, the division from which teams are promoted to the Football League.
“We did see unusual betting patterns,” said Blue Square spokesman Alan Alger, the firm that sponsors the division.
“We closed the market on Saturday. It looked extremely dodgy.”
Earlier this month, the Football Association charged five players for breaching betting rules, with some accused of gambling thousands of pounds. The five have been charged with betting on a victory for Bury in Accrington’s last game of last season .
Earlier this month, Macedonian club FK Pobeda were banned from European competitions for eight years after being found guilty of deliberately losing a match by governing body UEFA .

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