The Australian Football League has reportedly "all but ruled out" introducing midseason trading or drafting this year and "appears set to bring in at least one of those major changes" in '19. In effect, the AFL recognized that there is not time to bring in midseason player movement during the '18 season "given the logistics involved and the complications it would cause in the short-term" (THE AGE, 3/19).
Investors in gambling companies "won some relief" on Monday as the industry watchdog suggested "much less harsh restrictions on controversial betting machine stakes than anticipated, but the crackdown is expected to knock high street bookies nonetheless." The U.K. Gambling Commission recommended setting the maximum stake for fixed odds betting terminals at £30 ($42.11), a higher cap than campaigners sought and £10 ($14.04) more than "what many in the industry had privately predicted, sending the share prices of British bookmakers up" (TELEGRAPH, 3/19).
South African Airlines refused to fly Super Rugby side Queensland Reds to South Africa for its clash with the Stormers on Saturday. The Reds landed in São Paulo, Brazil, to catch their flight to Johannesburg but were refused permission to board "because many of the players had not had their yellow fever inoculations" ahead of their visit to Argentina last week for a match against the Jaguares (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/20).
Pirelli developed new software to help it choose race-by-race Formula 1 tire compounds "to encourage two pitstops per event, and give teams multiple strategy options." The Italian company will update the software with data from the two Barcelona tests and subsequent race weekends. Pirelli Racing Manager Mario Isola said, "We have now a very good tool, software that we created this winter, to make all the combinations with three different compounds" (MOTORSPORT, 3/19).
