Exclusive: Bookies report Burns-Cook bets to Gambling Board

[mickey1975]

I won good money on Gomez getting stopped a few times purely because i had seen him pissed out of his head every time i went to a fight. If the East Londoners were in the know, of course they will have lumped on. It doesnt take a lot to shift the odds, either. Maybe at Ascot or somewhere but certainly not on Burns-Cook. I have been to Southwell racecourse and seen a price halved from somebody putting £50 on a horse! Punters up and down the country will have thought there was a major gamble going on!

[JC]

The real issue for me is that this arose in the first place as I believe that there is no place for gambling in the world of sport and would happily see it outlawed.

I think gambling like prostitution and drinking is something that will always happen legal or otherwise. Outlawing it would effectively hand the sports gambling industry over to organised crime and its potential to negatively influence sport would increase ten fold IMO.

[LeedsLad]

I won good money on Gomez getting stopped a few times purely because i had seen him pissed out of his head every time i went to a fight. If the East Londoners were in the know, of course they will have lumped on. It doesnt take a lot to shift the odds, either. Maybe at Ascot or somewhere but certainly not on Burns-Cook. I have been to Southwell racecourse and seen a price halved from somebody putting £50 on a horse! Punters up and down the country will have thought there was a major gamble going on!

Good point.

There's a big difference between being in the know - i.e. fighters being out on the piss (or whatever) and lumping on as a result, and either people in Cook's team divulging these things or an outright fix.

I'm pretty certain that there's no outright fix going on, and in terms of rumours these things don't take a long time to go around in boxing. Only takes one person to overhear something at a table in a coffee shop and the whispers start.

I've had insider knowledge before on rugby league games about certain players carrying injuries and have placed bets accordingly, generally with good results - it's not anything new.

[Coco]

I won good money on Gomez getting stopped a few times purely because i had seen him pissed out of his head every time i went to a fight. If the East Londoners were in the know, of course they will have lumped on. It doesnt take a lot to shift the odds, either. Maybe at Ascot or somewhere but certainly not on Burns-Cook. I have been to Southwell racecourse and seen a price halved from somebody putting £50 on a horse! Punters up and down the country will have thought there was a major gamble going on!

Good post

[earsjohn]

I still can't see anything coming out of this to be honest. It reminds me of Michael Gomez versus Peter McDonagh. Betting was suspend pre-fight by some bookies due to betting irregularities in and around round five. These turned out to be a flurry of bets on that round, possibly stemming from the rumour that Gomez wasn't going to be able to last as he was winding down and looking poor in training.

There was a purse suspension, a load of speculation and an investigation but it merely turned out to be a case of a fighter failing to fire in training, people getting wind of this and working out how long he could last before piling on a specific round (altough at this point I have to admit that I've never bet so am not sure how it works, whether you pick a round or not). His trainer, the people around him and the fighter himself denied it, there was scepticism and it looked bad but in the cold, and cool, light of day it was much ado about nothing.

It was later explained to me that it was purely and simply a case of Gomez looking poor ahead of the fight, this getting picked up by some people and them betting accordingly. A suspicious betting pattern can be flagged if a certain number of people pile of a certain round, if Cook arrived back in the UK and broke down or looked poor in a session then all it takes is for one person to tell two people, who then tell four each, and you have a scenario where 30-40 people put differing size bets on a certain outcome and a flag is raised, just as a flag is raised by your bank if your spending pattern suddenly changes. They do this for fraud prevention but it can sometimes backfire.

For example, I used to work at a greyhound track and was seeing a girl there who's father owned a few dogs (no jokes please). Every so often he would tell me a piece of info but make me assure him that I would not tell anyone else as these things snowballed and it could mess up the bet. I didn't place a bet on the dogs, I would tell one person about the info, twenty minutes on and at least thirty people would pile on based on this info. My relationship with the girl didn't last long beyond the third tip.

Conspiracies etc are difficult to hold together, so if there is anything to it then something would out and probably would have done so by now. If Paul Cook has been arrested, is in the Paul Cook and it turns out that it has something to do with this then fair enough, but at the minute Nicky Cook, a fighter who used to be talked about on here glowingly as a warrior, is getting tried in a virtual kangeroo court without any real evidence save an irregular betting pattern stemming from a place near to where he trained for the fight. Sign of a heist, or that gym rumours translated to a flurry of bets.

My own take is that this is a guy who admitted last year that he was having injections in his back to fix a career threatening problem, had a comeback fight that barely saw him take a blow, openly admitted that he was having back problems in the days leading up to the fight (so clearly not a criminal mastermind) and accidently took a blow to the back when the fight was barely a minute out. Had he taken the shot to the chin, gone down and stayed down we'd blame it on getting caught cold. His reaction cetainly suggests that he was in pain, that his back was gone and that he couldn't continue, even though his final action of the fight was to gesture to the ref to give him a moment to recover.

His father's reaction in the corner after that first shot went in was of a man who had trained his son for a contest, both putting in the work, only for the back to go at the first sign of trouble. Not of a guy who wanted things to go to the third so he could throw the towel in.

If there is any truth to this then it will out. If there isn't then it won't out but five years on and one maybe two people will raise it up and wonder if Nicky Cook was there on the grassy knoll placing bets on which of the Temptations would manage to get the head shot. No different from Gomez-McDonagh, only this time on a bigger stage so it gets a bigger fuss.

Like I said, I'm not a betting man but I would bet that anyone on here who does gamble would act if they were to hear a whisper about a fight from a trusted source. I reckon someone was privy to something from the training camp and blabbed. The real issue for me is that this arose in the first place as I believe that there is no place for gambling in the world of sport and would happily see it outlawed.

Many good points being made here.

One difference between this case and previous ones is tightening of regulation of the gambling industry and additional poewrs handed to the Gambling Commission. As suspicious betting patterns have been reported, the GC is bound by its charter to carry out an investigation. Whether anything will be found is a matter for the non-criminal investigation. If they do find something untoward occurred, then it becomes a matter for the BBBC to review the case and impose sanctions. As it stands, no-one is accused of wrong-doing and the presumption of innocence should remain until otherwise proven.

However, the fact remains that suspicions were raised by the bookies to the Gambling Commission and the governing body of the sport. With this in mind there are 2 questions to each of the three key players - the BBBC, the Promoter and the Broadcaster - with responsibility for this fight that need addressing:

- When were you first notified of the suspicious betting patterns raised by the bookmakers?
- What actions did you take to understand the nature of the suspicions and satisfy yourselves that nothing untoward was going on?

As a customer, it is important to be confident that those running the sport are acting appropriately to address concerns as and when they arise and are not satisfied to ignore them and hope the problems disappear.

[Big-Beryl]

Have they suspended/held their purses

[Chambers2]

The real issue for me is that this arose in the first place as I believe that there is no place for gambling in the world of sport and would happily see it outlawed.

I'm not a betting man either BUT the total economic impact of the betting industry (indirect and direct impacts) is in excess of 6 billion per annum and it supports over 100,000 jobs in the British economy. I think it's an important and valued sector that should be properly regulated but fully supported by the government.

Maybe, but If you closed all those shops then the guys who spend all day in them would flood into the world and forge jobs for themselves, surely?

I do hear you, but just because it provides jobs and money doesn’t make it a healthy part of society, there is a human cost, money, jobs, marriages, and it is similar to the tobacco industry in my eyes, it makes a lot of money for a lot of people and provides jobs to others but we’d arguably be best of without it.

Have you copied and pasted this out of the Daily Mail?

[earsjohn]

I'm not a betting man either BUT the total economic impact of the betting industry (indirect and direct impacts) is in excess of 6 billion per annum and it supports over 100,000 jobs in the British economy. I think it's an important and valued sector that should be properly regulated but fully supported by the government.

Maybe, but If you closed all those shops then the guys who spend all day in them would flood into the world and forge jobs for themselves, surely?

I do hear you, but just because it provides jobs and money doesn’t make it a healthy part of society, there is a human cost, money, jobs, marriages, and it is similar to the tobacco industry in my eyes, it makes a lot of money for a lot of people and provides jobs to others but we’d arguably be best of without it.

Have you copied and pasted this out of the Daily Mail?

Unlikely. If it had been from the Daily Mail it would have been headlined "Gambling Killed Diana" and it would also have blamed Ladbrokes for "all the illegals flooding our borders"

[Chambers2]

Unlikely. If it had been from the Daily Mail it would have been headlined "Gambling Killed Diana" and it would also have blamed Ladbrokes for "all the illegals flooding our borders"

[dondada]

Just not buying into the general level of post-fight hysteria and would be surprised if this leads anywhere. But always open to surprised. It is likely to fizzle out as early as this weekend if the Chisora-Fury fight ends in a close decision, sorry, a robbery, or a controversial early stoppage.

Post-fight hysteria? Surely it's the opposite seeing as BoxRec News is the only media source, thus far, who has reported the betting angle.

Things do fizzle out if people can't be arsed to report on them when there is a quite clear need to.

[Chambers2]

Chambers, why? Surely a world minus tobacco products (but not all smokable goods), gambling and drink would be a better one? You may say that all three help people deal with the stresses of life but why not put the products of the devil’s system away and go for a bit of transcendental meditation when you want to relax?

I'm for pro-choice and I'm anti Nanny-state and prohibition. If you wanna smoke, gamble, drink, inject crack into your eyeball then you should be allowed to IMO

I love a gamble, I gamble within my means and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it (as it adds a lot more interest to whichever sport I'm betting on). I'm not harming anyone, so why should I be prevented? This country (and probably others) always seem to cater to the lowest possible denominator i.e. the prick who bet his house away on whether there'd be more than 2 corners in Stalybridge Vs Hednesford town

[gasman]

Just not buying into the general level of post-fight hysteria and would be surprised if this leads anywhere. But always open to surprised. It is likely to fizzle out as early as this weekend if the Chisora-Fury fight ends in a close decision, sorry, a robbery, or a controversial early stoppage.

Post-fight hysteria? Surely it's the opposite seeing as BoxRec News is the only media source, thus far, who has reported the betting angle.

Things do fizzle out if people can't be arsed to report on them when there is a quite clear need to.

Exactly. Why hasnt a member of press (i.e. those that get a press pass from wazza for his shows) asked allegedly's opinion on the betting angle, i.e. basically get answers to the sound questions that earsjohn has posed on this thread?

[dondada]

I was referring to this here forum. But the betting situation has been mentioned in other places if only to dismiss it.

I simply don't beleive that Cook was privy to a betting scam.

I don't believe he was either. Yes, the betting situation has been mentioned in the odd place to dismiss it.

The FACT of the matter is, people in Nicky Cook's backyard were lumping on him getting stopped early. This has resulted in bookmakers referring it to their regulatory body.

It could be the old rumours, whispers, encouraging a few punts, of course. But don't tell me it isn't worthy of investigation or comment - I just don't believe it.

But, as Gasman says, no one who should be seems interested...

[dondada]

I was referring to this here forum. But the betting situation has been mentioned in other places if only to dismiss it.

I simply don't beleive that Cook was privy to a betting scam.

I don't believe he was either. Yes, the betting situation has been mentioned in the odd place to dismiss it.

The FACT of the matter is, people in Nicky Cook's backyard were lumping on him getting stopped early. This has resulted in bookmakers referring it to their regulatory body.

It could be the old rumours, whispers, encouraging a few punts, of course. But don't tell me it isn't worthy of investigation or comment - I just don't believe it.

But, as Gasman says, no one who should be seems interested...

I would offer to have a bet with you that it turns out to be a spate of bets based on Nicky’s own admissions over his back and info about his training form but a) I don’t bet b) I wouldn’t pay c) you’d probably think I was taking the piss and d) Richard ‘The Secret’ Williams.

Time will work things out.

I wouldn't take that bet because I agree with you!

Great to see The Secret on Ringside last night - he looked in great nick too.

[Eddy]

Who's to say that because bets were put on AGAINST Cook in east London was done by Londoners. So many Scots/Irish/Welsh/Africans ect ect in London anyway. The world is a mixed village now.