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11 January 2006
Darts Players Cleared Of
Match-Fixing
Gary
Anderson and Gary Robson have been cleared of wrong-doing
after irregular betting patterns preceded their
Lakeside
World Championship
match.
Bookmakers said Anderson,
who won the first-round tie 3-1, had been backed to the near
exclusion of Robson, costing the industry a possible
six-figure sum.
The Association
of British Bookmakers
(ABB) will not launch an inquiry and both players have been
cleared by the British
Darts Organisation
(BDO) after interviews uncovered nothing.
ABB spokesman John Johnson
said: "I understand the BDO has interviewed both players and
given the situation a clean bill of health, so there's not
really anything more we can do."
Bookmaker William
Hill was forced to
suspend its market on the match within two hours of opening
it last Thursday, having been inundated with support for
Anderson.
"We saw some of the
strangest ever betting patterns on an early-round darts
match in a major competition," said William Hill spokesman
Graham Sharpe.
"We thought it was a
flip-of-a-coin type of match and opened up with both players
at 5-6. We were knocked over by people wanting to back Gary
Anderson.
"In normal circumstances
you would maybe take a couple of thousand pounds. But in
this case it was well into five figures within two hours,
and the interest was only in one of the two
players.
"We therefore took the
almost unprecedented step of closing the book, but we will
stand by those bets and pay up."
Coral
spokesman Simon Clare added: "Nobody wanted to back Gary
Robson - we hardly took a bet on him. We are paying out
through gritted teeth but we have serious concerns about the
betting patterns and would welcome an inquiry."
But the BDO and the
International Darts Players' Association (IDPA) were united
in insisting nothing untoward had occurred.
IDPA chief executive
Martin Fitzmaurice said: "We have spoken to both players
today. They categorically deny any involvement in the
betting activity, and we would know if they were
lying."
BDO managing director Olly
Croft added: "The players were told about the betting
activity and were distraught. They are the most honest
people in the world."
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