Questions over Tom Waterhouse odds during sports broadcasts
Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse will be called to a parliamentary hearing over spruiking live odds during Nine sports broadcasts.
- Published by David Knox
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More questions about the inclusion of gambling odds appearing in sporting matches are being raised today with a report that bookmaker Tom Waterhouse will be called to attend a specially convened parliamentary hearing.
Fairfax reports senators are concerned that the lines between bookmaker and sports commentator have blurred with his appearances during NRL coverage.
After paying $15 million to Nine, Waterhouse has been embedded with the Nine commentary team for NRL broadcasts, updating the changing odds but also giving his opinion on play. He also hosts a panel discussion with Phil Gould and Ray Warren on the next day’s horse racing form.
Senator Richard di Natale, a member of the gambling reform committee that will invite Waterhouse to appear, said the bookmaker was ”pushing the boundaries”. ”Young kids can’t tell the difference between a bookie and a commentator when they’re all standing there together,” he said.
Advertising by gambling companies is banned during the G-rated periods – but an exception was made for sport.
Last June it was announced that sports commentators would be banned from promoting live odds during sports broadcasts.
At the time the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, said, “The Gillard Government understands that the promotion of live odds during sports broadcasts can contribute to the encouragement of gambling, particularly amongst vulnerable people including children.
“Broadcasters have agreed to amend their existing codes of practice to restrict live odds promotion, including by banning sporting commentators from mentioning live odds and banning all live odds promotion during play.”
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33 Responses
i stopped watching all programson nine and foxtel that have tom waterhouse adds. it sickened me that nine would include him in their panel shows as a panelist. gambling is an addiction. there is no way i would expose my children to all his gambling adds. sickens me to my stomach. nine should be ashamed of themselves for giving tom waterhouse free rein on all their league shows. disgusted . and the frequency of the adds was simply too much for me to watch including on foxtel every second add was tom waterhouse . if tom waterhouse can spend 15 million to advertise on nine and foxtel image what he is making from those poor suckers who bet on sport. tom waterhouse and every other betting group have to be stopped . its just as bad for you as smoking . the govt needs to put a stop to this asap. i have seen to many people suffer from their gambling addiction
Only one person will win from this deal.
What I find quite disgusting about the pervasiveness of Tom Waterhouse’s ads, and Jamie Rogers from TAB, is that the administrators and TV networks seem to not care that a lot of people watch sports with their families.
I used to encourage my kids to stay up to watch the occasional game (of most sports) with me as I believe that an interest in sport is a good thing, and watching the professionals at work should help them as they get to grips with playing their respective sports too.
However, I really don’t like the idea that my kids may grow up to associate sport with gambling. Having Tom Waterhouse constantly on screen throughout is sure to do this. It just shows how the TV networks, the betting agencies, and maybe the sports administrators themselves, really don’t care about the future of Australian sport, as I’m sure I’m not alone in restricting my kids from watching sports nowadays.
There seems to be more of a backlash towards gambling in the nrl this year than previous years. Tom Waterhouse is the new ”gambling sponsor” of Nine, and has more of a pressence. There’s a few rugby league forums i regularly check, and there is alot of anger about gambling on them this year.
It’s a good opportunity i guess that Fairfax and a few politicians are talking about this. Hopefully the senate cracks it down
@Joy69
Waterhouse doesn’t even have a deal with the NRL theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/m-waterhouse-nrl-deal-exaggerated/story-e6frg6nf-1226607675925
You should really only be able to advertise products at the right timeslot for TV. You need to be 18+ to use alcohol and gambling so therefore should only be allowed to advertise it after 8:30pm. NRL and TV should be thinking more about attracting other advertisers other than these big adult products.
@Earthquake
That Ronald McDonald line – LOL!
So funny, so true.
@steveany 2.0 – salient words as always. The one thing that this blurring of the boundaries does is normalise gambling in the minds of your every-day sports fan.
Of course, this is exactly what Waterhouse and the other gambling companies want and is not any different from what the beer companies did and still do – you watch some sport and have some beers / you watch some sport and have a few bets. And not just on the outcome of the game/match, now you can lose your money even faster by betting on the points difference, which player will score first, or what colour undies the ref will wear.
@MHA – you must have missed the bit where Waterhouse paid $15m to Nine.
After Davids item on product placement within the Biggest Loser programme yesterday, isn’t this exactly the same as that, in it being virtually “live product placement”
It seems to me that NRL lost its attraction when betting became involved. The stench of corruption and dodginess now hangs over the game. I’m not against people betting on which team will win, that’s not so bad. It’s these so-called microbets which are the problem.
A couple of years ago the Roosters deliberately threw a game because team members had outlayed a lot of money on losing the game. When Fairfax tried to report on it the team’s management called in the lawyers. We’ve heard of deliberate penalties being taken in front of the goalposts because a team official has betted on a certain player scoring the first penalty goal.
Nine embedding bookmakers with the commentary team encouraging viewers to “phone your bets now” is only harming the game.
Horse racing was created for betting, football was created for entertainment and athleticism. Once we let bookmakers dictate the terms under which a game can be played then it isn’t sport anymore.
It’s been a joke & i hope this ends it.
It’s really tragic how the desensitisation of gambling has developed into a full on gambling show on Nine after the game has finished. Time that should be spent recapping a great 80 minutes of football is ruined by saturation advertising. It’s like having a review panel hosted by Ronald McDonald after The Biggest Loser.
@MHA- Waterhouse has 15m deal with 9 and 50m with NRL.
9 need the money to prop up the loss making in the tv rights deal they signed last year. Gyngell & Co need to find every cent possible to prevent them having huge losses on this deal. as mentioned back when they signed the deal , 7 had predicted that 9 alone would be losing 42M a season on the deal they signed. but the biggest loser here is the NRL tv veiwing public. Shame to the 9 and the league commission, you have sold us out big time. hope you pay the price.
His ads are just as annoying as “Jamie Rogers here”.
This is disgusting and I should not have to sit through sport explaining to my kids that this is wrong. They do not need to see it at all.
About time! For someone who admits he knows nothing about sport, having Waterhouse commenting on the NRL broadcasts is beyond the pale. It’s crossing a line and should stop immediately. Whenever this clown pops up on my screen I hit the mute button…
Sport and gambling are linked, have always been linked and will always be linked. Picking the winner, favourites and upsets and caring about the result are all essential parts of sport.
The laws are designed to damage gambling by stopping celebrity commentators associated with the sport using that to promote gambling. This is claimed to be advertising by stealth and that people are too dumb to figure out what is going on so it will unduly influence them.
And because other people are dumb they only gamble because of the TV ads. So if you stop the TV ads you can wipe out gambling. Which is amazingly dumb but that is what they teach at university these days.
As Waterhouse is openly advertising his gambling business the restriction does not apply. Gambling is legal, advertising and promoting gambling during sport is also perfectly legal except by the network’s staff. Advertising and promoting gambling outside of sport is perfectly legal in non G timeslots.
This is even worse news for Channel 9. They paid a billion dollars for NRL rights mainly because they rely on advertising mainly from alcohol and gambling. Serves them right really. The gambling industry really needs to be regulated a lot more.
I have no words to adequately reflect how base I find this move by Nine to blatantly link sport to gambling. But I’ll try: appalling, disgraceful. Sickening.
Geez I hope there is such a thing as karma. Some people richly deserve a good dose of the negative variety to atone for their sins.
I can’t imagine why anyone would be interested in Waterhouse’s opinion – on anything.
At least in Victoria we’re mostly spared him.
This practice is disgusting and should be stopped immediately.
Tom Waterhouse is one of reasons (Gus Gould and clunky direction are others) that NRL is not on in our house. It is just too annoying and a little creepy that poor old Ray Warren (a self-confessed mug gambler who lost a lot of dough) sits there talking the odds with young Tom.
It will get a lot worse before it gets better as Labor and Liberal are too gutless to do anything about it. Much the same as the insidious pokie problem.
I know it’s within the loose rules governing this area but surely someone at 9 has some morals?
Am I too naive?
Don’t think it has anything to do with Nine, as the contract is beteen Waterhouse and the NRL. Nine might only have him there as Waterhouse is part of the package that Nine bought from the NRL?
This is a complete farce that this bloke is allowed to sit in the commentary and disguise gambling as part of the commentary. Plus in his ads the guy keeps telling us how little he knows about sport, so who would trust him anyway. This is why Nine’s sport’s coverage is so dodgy, they do crap like this. NRL should have gone to Ten.
He signed a deal with the AFL or Seven too didn’t he? I hope Seven’s AFL coverage doesn’t go the same way.
$15M – from his losing gamblers to promote his betting odds. Well, he must be getting his money’s worth, but it should stop or be stopped.