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A racing television star is under investigation and other TAB staff have been stood down after bets were allegedly placed on a Martina Hingis tennis match which had the wrong odds.
Trackside TV's Luke Radich is among those who are the focus of a New Zealand Racing Board inquiry into bets laid on the January 21 Australian Open match.
The odds for the match were mistakenly mixed up, giving punters a chance to win more than $3 for every dollar bet that former world number one Hingis would beat Li Na, who has never won a major tournament and was ranked 19 in the world. Normally Hingis would be expected to pay less than $1.50 for such a victory.
The Herald on Sunday has been told that as many as five staff members at the NZRB - the TAB is the branding arm of the board - placed bets on the match.
The involvement of Radich is particularly embarrassing for the board, which considers the young television star the "Golden Boy" of racing broadcasting in New Zealand.
The betting was caught early after computers picked up unusual levels of betting on the match - even though the amount of money involved was not large.
The Hingis case was confirmed by TAB chief executive Graeme Hansen - although he refused to discuss the investigation or whether any staff were involved.
"I did become aware from the bookies there had been a mispricing on the Hingis match," he said. "If there is a certain amount of activity a screen pops up flags to warn you there is activity going on and you should make sure you don't need to change your price."
Racing board chairman Michael Stiassny refused to comment as did board members contacted by the Herald on Sunday. All referred comment to Hansen, who would not discuss the matter further.
Radich also would not discuss his involvement. "I don't know that it would be proper for me to comment. I'm sorry - I would like to, I really would, but I don't know that it would be proper for me to comment, given that it's, you know, it's a private matter and I certainly wouldn't comment without my employer giving the okay for that, so I think it's best that I don't."
While Radich was still working yesterday, broadcasting from the Ellerslie racecourse, a number of other TAB staff have been placed on leave until the investigation is complete.
Those staff have been told by management that they are welcome to get lawyers or other support people to work through the investigation.
One focus of the investigation is the call centre, as the TAB works to establish how news of the mixed-up odds was discovered by staff. All calls into the TAB centre are recorded, allowing investigators to log the time the odds became common knowledge.
They were then able to trace the spread of the information and match that against the time bets on Hingis winning were placed.
Other information is also being sought in the inquiry, including CCTV footage of bets being placed at TAB retail stores. Against this, some of the staff involved are believed to have argued that they placed their bets in good faith.
Hansen said the computers picked up the higher than expected number of bets on the Hingis match and raised the alarm. The level set to pick up problems was set low because it was a head-to-head sporting contest - bets which have a variety of outcomes have higher limits. With the low limit, the extra activity was easier to cancel. In other cases in which the wrong odds have been set, Hansen said, there have been cases of all bets being cancelled but it was not necessary in the Hingis match.
"It's always a bookie's call. The bookie looked at it and thought there wasn't enough volume there to get excited about. There wasn't a great deal of betting on this book. Whatever happened was not of great financial substance."
The investigation is expected to be completed in weeks.
