Punters "have splurged" more than A$600M ($539M) on this season's T20 Big Bash in an int'l betting blitz that "has put cricket's anti-corruption police on their toes," according to Ben Dorries of NEWS LIMITED NETWORK. The Brisbane Courier-Mail "has obtained extraordinary figures" which show punters on global betting giant Betfair had A$573M in bets on 22 Big Bash games before Tuesday night's match. A range of other corporate and online bookmakers in Australia and around the globe have taken more than another A$30M "in bets on Australia's domestic T20 competition." But "it is the volume of bets on Betfair, where punters can back teams to win or lose and bet live 'in-play' at any stage during matches, that is most staggering." More than A$20M "has been bet on all bar two of this season's Big Bash games" with an astonishing A$47.6M "wagered in the game in which Perth Scorchers beat Hobart Hurricanes in Perth" on Jan. 7. The volume of Big Bash bets "has cricket's anti-corruption police watching closely, given the sawn-off 20-over game is the most susceptible to fixing." A Cricket Australia spokesperson said that "anti-corruption measures had been centralised and there were the same strict security measures in place for Big Bash matches as there were for international games." As part of new integrity systems, CA "has also engaged an external bet monitoring company, Sportradar, to identify suspicious betting trends" (NEWS LIMITED NETWORK, 1/15).
