Ahead of announcement, employees linked to Time Warner PR Agency caught
wagering on result
NEW YORK, NY, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ - Sportsbook.com, the world's largest
online sportsbook, has been forced to halt wagering on Time Magazine's Person
of the Year and Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year due to
suspicious betting activity. Upon further investigation by Sportsbook.com, the
first and only sportsbook to offer odds on the annual designations, it appears
employees of a public relations agency linked to Time Warner have used inside
information to place the maximum allowable bet on this year's winners.
On the afternoon of Friday, December 2, a number of suspicious wagers,
originating primarily from New York and New Jersey, were posted on Mother
Nature to be named Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2005. These wagers
have been traced back to e-mail addresses of a New York-based PR agency that
lists Time Warner as one of its clients.
This decision followed on the heels of similarly suspicious betting
activity on the 2005 recipient of Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the
Year. Since the odds were posted on the annual designation several weeks ago,
numerous wagers from the same sources for the maximum allowable bet were
placed on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Later in the evening of
December 2, a leak emerged that Tom Brady would, in fact, be this year's
winner.
"Sportsbook.com is committed to providing the fairest, most level playing
field offered by anyone in the online gaming business," says Peter Childs,
oddsmaker Sportsbook.com. "Everyone loves to bet, on sporting events and
novelty options whether it be the Academy Awards or the winners of Time
Magazine and Sports Illustrated's Person of the Year. We have to close these
events not only to stop these few bettors with inside information, but to
protect the thousands of other bettors who will wager on this without knowing
the outcome. We will, however, honor all bets made until we were forced to
close the betting."
About Sportsbook.com
Sportsbook.com is the largest sportsbook and casino on the planet,
offering numerous products including sports betting, horse racing, poker,
casino and virtual games. It is the flagship US brand of Sportingbet PLC (LSE:
SBT), Headquartered in London, England, it is the world's leading publicly
traded online betting, gambling and gaming company. Sportingbet has been voted
number one in the industry for two years in a row by the authoritative eGaming
Review Power 50 Survey. Sportingbet also won the 2005 eGaming Award for best
US-Focused company as a result of the success of sportsbook.com.
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