The Herald Sun’s Mark Buttler has shared further details of the Brownlow betting scandal that has so far seen four arrests.
News broke on Monday morning that Victoria Police had arrested four people over suspicious betting activity on the award which was taken out by Carlton’s Patrick Cripps in September.
While it was reported that an umpire was under scrutiny at the time, the scandal grew after it was revealed the umpire was one of the four originally arrested.
Warrants were executed on Monday morning, although details are still scarce.
Buttler, who broke the original story, provided an update on how things sit several hours after the first developments.
“There’s been an investigation which appears to have been running for a month or so by the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit into some irregularities which surfaced after the Brownlow,” Buttler told SEN’s Sportsday.
“I think the AFL was alerted by a betting partner by the sounds of it to some anomalies… in relation to round-by-round betting, spot betting. Nothing to do with Cripps winning the ultimate prize.”
On the number of rounds bet on, Buttler added: “I think we’re talking multiple rounds. I don’t know how many but… a handful.”
As Buttler noted, given the Brownlow is a subjective award decided by the three officiating AFL umpires after a game often without looking at the stats, it is irregular for large bets to be placed on these markets.
“The betting agency would come to the AFL, it’s in nobody’s interest for allegations of behaviour like that to persist,” Buttler explained.
“The betting agency loses money, it affects the integrity of the public standing of the game, police have obviously really put some resources into this kind of behaviour in the last decade, they don’t want it either…”
The Herald Sun is further reporting the umpire officiated all the games which are under investigation, and while they are not of high profile, are expected to be stood down.
The Victoria Police investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the AFL and Sport Integrity Australia.