Australia&#39;s cricket board has banned two players for betting on matches and given a suspended ban to a third as part of its &quot;zero tolerance&quot; approach to gambling-related corruption. 
 
Hayley Jensen and Corinne Hall, who play in the national women&#39;s league and women&#39;s domestic Twenty20 tournament, were both given two-year bans with 18 months suspended, Cricket Australia (CA) said in a media release on Wednesday. 
 
Jensen had admitted placing one bet on the result of the men&#39;s test match between Australia and New Zealand in Brisbane last November.&nbsp;Hall had made two bets relating to two matches in the men&#39;s domestic one-day competition in 2015-16. 
 
&quot;Jensen and Hall are prohibited from participating in any form of cricket or cricket-related event for a period of six months until 21 October 2016,&quot; CA said. 
 
Joel Logan, who plays for South Australia in the men&#39;s domestic competition, was sanctioned for placing two bets on the winner of the World T20 tournament. 
 
Logan was also given a two-year ban but it was wholly suspended due to &quot;circumstances relating to his match contracts and the specific timing&quot; of his bets.&nbsp;All three players were required to participate in anti-corruption education programs, the board said. 
 
&ldquo;We take a proactive, zero-tolerance approach to maintaining the integrity of our sport and this includes any form of betting on cricket globally,&quot; CA&#39;s integrity boss Iain Roy said. 
 
&quot;These players have accepted the seriousness of their errors and have voluntarily accepted their sanctions.&quot; 
 
CA in February banned 19-year-old woman cricketer Piepa Cleary for six months, with another 18 months suspended, for placing six bets on a men&#39;s test match between Australia and New Zealand in November. 
 
That followed a two-year suspended sentence given to Sydney-based women&#39;s cricketer Angela Reakes in December for placing five bets on the man-of-the-match for last year&#39;s cricket World Cup final. 
 
World cricket has been rocked by a number of gambling-related scandals in recent years. 
 
Three Pakistani players were banned from cricket and jailed in 2011 after they were convicted of criminal charges related to spot-fixing in a test match during their tour of England the previous year. 
 
(Reuters)

In its drive to clean up the sport, Cricket Australia has penalised two women and one man for gambling

Australia's cricket board has banned two players for betting on matches and given a suspended ban to a third as part of its "zero tolerance" approach to gambling-related corruption. Hayley Jensen and Corinne Hall, who play in the national women's league and women's domestic Twenty20 tournament, were both given two-year bans with 18 months suspended, Cricket Australia (CA) said in a media release on Wednesday. Jensen had admitted placing one bet on the result of the men's test match between Australia and New Zealand in Brisbane last November. Hall had made two bets relating to two matches in the men's domestic one-day competition in 2015-16. "Jensen and Hall are prohibited from participating in any form of cricket or cricket-related event for a period of six months until 21 October 2016," CA said. Joel Logan, who plays for South Australia in the men's domestic competition, was sanctioned for placing two bets on the winner of the World T20 tournament. Logan was also given a two-year ban but it was wholly suspended due to "circumstances relating to his match contracts and the specific timing" of his bets. All three players were required to participate in anti-corruption education programs, the board said. “We take a proactive, zero-tolerance approach to maintaining the integrity of our sport and this includes any form of betting on cricket globally," CA's integrity boss Iain Roy said. "These players have accepted the seriousness of their errors and have voluntarily accepted their sanctions." CA in February banned 19-year-old woman cricketer Piepa Cleary for six months, with another 18 months suspended, for placing six bets on a men's test match between Australia and New Zealand in November. That followed a two-year suspended sentence given to Sydney-based women's cricketer Angela Reakes in December for placing five bets on the man-of-the-match for last year's cricket World Cup final. World cricket has been rocked by a number of gambling-related scandals in recent years. Three Pakistani players were banned from cricket and jailed in 2011 after they were convicted of criminal charges related to spot-fixing in a test match during their tour of England the previous year. (Reuters)

Australian cricket board slaps bans on three players for betting

In China&#39;s eastern city of Hangzhou, Li could barely watch as Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo lined up a penalty kick in a finely-balanced Euro 2016 group match against Austria. Li had a reason to be nervous: He had bet tens of thousands of yuan on Portugal to win. 
 
With 10 minutes to go in the game in Paris, Real Madrid star Ronaldo hit the post, the game ended in a draw, and Li lost the money he had bet using Tencent Holdings Ltd&#39;s popular messaging app WeChat. 
 
Amid a surge of Chinese interest in global soccer, a side-effect has been a record spike in illegal gambling online, prompting multi-million dollar busts by police on betting rings, and tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cracking down on gambling activity on their apps. 
 
&quot;There are so many gamblers, groups and platforms during the European Cup though that I think it&#39;s really hard to find all of them,&quot; said Li, who asked only to use his surname as most online gambling in China is illegal. 
 
Li said he used a private chat group on WeChat where most of the betters were friends. Winnings were distributed via bank transfer, Alibaba-linked Alipay, WeChat or &#39;red packets&#39;, digital versions of traditional envelopes stuffed with cash. 
 
In the run-up to the UEFA European Football Championship final in Paris next Sunday, Chinese police say they have seen a surge in illegal online gambling. In a single bust last week, police in southern Guangdong arrested 147 people and froze funds worth nearly 100 million yuan ($15 million). 
 
Alibaba and Tencent acknowledge the issue and have anti-gambling systems in place to spot illegal behaviour. 
 
Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate which operates Alipay, has a three-tiered system to spot gambling, with computer systems analysing user behaviour and a line of human checks. 
 
&quot;If we find suspicious accounts, then we are going to freeze the account directly. It only takes a few hours from the first to the last step,&quot; said spokeswoman Miranda Shek, adding the firm was looking to add more anti-gambling staff. 
 
Reiterating a previous statement, Tencent said it is doing more to stamp out gambling on its platforms like WeChat, including restricting groups suspected of gambling behaviour and punishing individual account holders. It said it has put limits on more than 8,000 WeChat groups, and has limited the payment and &#39;red packet&#39; capabilities on more than 6,000 accounts. 
 
Soccer boom 
 
A soccer investment boom in China has helped propel interest in the game. Chinese firms have invested in overseas clubs, player agencies and media rights firms, and global soccer stars have moved to China in multi-million dollar deals. 
 
&quot;With the European Cup, everyone&#39;s betting on soccer but also over the last couple of years China&#39;s soccer market has developed rapidly. Big investments and star names create a real lure,&quot; said Hu Naijun, an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. 
 
The organiser of an online gambling group, who gave his name as Bao, said he and four other organisers had a pot of 5 million Yuan ($750,706) and that dozens of people would join for each game. 
 
&quot;In one night there will be millions placed in bets,&quot; he said, adding it had become a lucrative business. &quot;For the final, we&#39;ll probably go to Macau or Hong Kong and spend the whole week in the presidential suite.&quot; 
 
Li says he&#39;s still backing Portugal - who are through to the semi-finals - for Euro 2016 glory. 
 
&quot;I often can&#39;t watch, my heart just can&#39;t take it, I feel nervous at every chance. Especially when Ronaldo missed the penalty, I almost passed out,&quot; he said. 
 
($1 = 6.6604 Chinese yuan renminbi) 
 
(Reuters)&nbsp;

Investment boom has spiked public interest with betting rings reaping the benefit. Tencent and Alibaba are trying to stop gambling via apps

In China's eastern city of Hangzhou, Li could barely watch as Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo lined up a penalty kick in a finely-balanced Euro 2016 group match against Austria. Li had a reason to be nervous: He had bet tens of thousands of yuan on Portugal to win. With 10 minutes to go in the game in Paris, Real Madrid star Ronaldo hit the post, the game ended in a draw, and Li lost the money he had bet using Tencent Holdings Ltd's popular messaging app WeChat. Amid a surge of Chinese interest in global soccer, a side-effect has been a record spike in illegal gambling online, prompting multi-million dollar busts by police on betting rings, and tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cracking down on gambling activity on their apps. "There are so many gamblers, groups and platforms during the European Cup though that I think it's really hard to find all of them," said Li, who asked only to use his surname as most online gambling in China is illegal. Li said he used a private chat group on WeChat where most of the betters were friends. Winnings were distributed via bank transfer, Alibaba-linked Alipay, WeChat or 'red packets', digital versions of traditional envelopes stuffed with cash. In the run-up to the UEFA European Football Championship final in Paris next Sunday, Chinese police say they have seen a surge in illegal online gambling. In a single bust last week, police in southern Guangdong arrested 147 people and froze funds worth nearly 100 million yuan ($15 million). Alibaba and Tencent acknowledge the issue and have anti-gambling systems in place to spot illegal behaviour. Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate which operates Alipay, has a three-tiered system to spot gambling, with computer systems analysing user behaviour and a line of human checks. "If we find suspicious accounts, then we are going to freeze the account directly. It only takes a few hours from the first to the last step," said spokeswoman Miranda Shek, adding the firm was looking to add more anti-gambling staff. Reiterating a previous statement, Tencent said it is doing more to stamp out gambling on its platforms like WeChat, including restricting groups suspected of gambling behaviour and punishing individual account holders. It said it has put limits on more than 8,000 WeChat groups, and has limited the payment and 'red packet' capabilities on more than 6,000 accounts. Soccer boom A soccer investment boom in China has helped propel interest in the game. Chinese firms have invested in overseas clubs, player agencies and media rights firms, and global soccer stars have moved to China in multi-million dollar deals. "With the European Cup, everyone's betting on soccer but also over the last couple of years China's soccer market has developed rapidly. Big investments and star names create a real lure," said Hu Naijun, an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. The organiser of an online gambling group, who gave his name as Bao, said he and four other organisers had a pot of 5 million Yuan ($750,706) and that dozens of people would join for each game. "In one night there will be millions placed in bets," he said, adding it had become a lucrative business. "For the final, we'll probably go to Macau or Hong Kong and spend the whole week in the presidential suite." Li says he's still backing Portugal - who are through to the semi-finals - for Euro 2016 glory. "I often can't watch, my heart just can't take it, I feel nervous at every chance. Especially when Ronaldo missed the penalty, I almost passed out," he said. ($1 = 6.6604 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reuters)

In China football boom sparks online gambling craze

betting

Betting, News on Betting, stories on Betting, articles on Betting, Betting stories at Wion, Betting news, Betting latest news