Yahoo – The IRB has ramped up their anti-corruption fight with warnings that people involved in match-fixing could face a lifetime ban while players even placing a bet on a game could be slapped with a one-year suspension. The regulations, however, are seen as more preventive in nature, the New Zealand Rugby Union’s general manager of professional rugby, Neil Sorensen, said.
“We haven’t heard of anyone betting (illegally) on rugby but we don’t want to risk it,” Sorensen told Reuters. “But the more global that rugby gets and the more there is live television coverage to places where illegal betting is massive, the risks do increase. “So the more that people understand the risks, the better they are able to deal with it in the future.”
Sorensen added that gambling on rugby was relatively small on the worldwide sports betting market with the total wagered last year on the entire Super Rugby competition about NZ$600 million (£360m). A single one-day international cricket match could have as much as NZ$6 million wagered on it, he said.
Under the new regulations the NZRU said that almost 2,000 people involved in professional and semi-professional rugby within New Zealand would now be prevented from placing a bet on the sport anywhere in the world and they would be asked to sign a pledge to abide by the new conditions. The IRB’s list of people restricted from gambling, known as ‘connected persons’ included medical staff, administrators, player agents, friends and family members, Sorensen added.
“Under the rules I’m banned from betting and I can’t ask my son to go and make a substantial bet for me based on what information I may have,” he said. “It (the breadth of the list) is quite onerou
