A 500-pound ($780) bet that produced a 10-1 payoff for a red card given to Motherwell midfielder Steve Jennings in a Scottish Premier League match against Hearts Tuesday night isbeing investigated by the Association of British Bookmakers.
A person described as a “new customer” in the Liverpool area placed the bet that there would be a red card in the match.British bookmakers are authorized to offer odds on all manner of wagers regarding sports events, from halftime scores to whether or not a penalty kick is awarded. Which bookmaker offered the 10-1price has not been revealed; two other major bookmaking companies, Wi lliamHill and Ladbrokes, set odds of 4-1 and 3-1, respectively, for the same occurence.
Jennings, who’d already been cautioned, was given a straight red for arguing a decision and placing ahand on referee Stevie O’Reilly. Tom Kenny of the ABB said: “We have put an alert out on the Motherwell game and that is quite normal when a new punter asks for anunusual bet. We want to see if there is a parallel elsewhere.
“It is important to point out that something that is unusual is not necessarily suspicious and something that is suspicious isnot necessarily fraudulent.”