NRL: No TAB refunds for Storm bets

The New Zealand TAB will not be refunding bets on the Melbourne Storm to win the National Rugby League (NRL), even if some Australian agencies are doing so.

TAB bookmaker Mark Stafford said markets on the NRL premiership winners, top eight and the New Zealand Warriors match against the Storm match in Melbourne on Sunday night were all suspended after the NRL yesterday stripped the Storm of all competition points in 2010 due to salary cap breaches.

But all futures bets on the Storm were down the drain.

"If you've had a bet on Melbourne (to win the premiership or make the top eight) and this decision stands, unfortunately those bets will be deemed losing bets. It's an unfortunate part of sport when there's cheating involved," Stafford told Trackside Television today.

"There's probably more punters who have profited from it because they got good prices on St George and Manly and the other teams, because Melbourne were a very real threat up until yesterday."

Sportingbet Australia yesterday said it would refund all bets on last year's champions the Storm to win the title.

Stafford said the market on Sunday's match would likely reopen when there was a clearer idea of whether the Storm would front with a full-strength side.

The Storm were $1.30 and the Warriors $3.30 yesterday before betting was suspended, and bets already placed on the match would stand, Stafford said.

"Some people have got good value on one side or the other side. It might just be status quo for this particular game and when we reopen the prices might be the same."

One area the TAB wasn't stung was in the wooden spoon market. They didn't offer wooden spoon betting early in the season as they heeded the lessons from the Bulldogs' similarly spectacular fall from grace eight years ago.

"We haven't been burned and the punters haven't been burned with that one. We learned our lesson in 2002 when the Bulldogs breached the salary cap.

"We have had wooden spoon markets the past four seasons but we don't open it until there's only a few games left and all this sort of controversy is completely out of the way."

Several Australian betting agencies were hammered early yesterday before the news was announced in the evening.

Sportingbet reported four bets on the Storm to win A$40,000 ($52,094) in the space of 15 minutes before they suspended their wooden spoon market.

"Melbourne have gone from $251 to $1.01 for the wooden spoon in the space of six hours, which has to be the biggest betting move in history," Sportingbet chief executive Michael Sullivan said yesterday.

St George-Illawarra were the $4.50 premiership favourites in the new Australian markets, with Parramatta and Manly each at $7.

- NZPA