TAB asked to investigate allegations of illegal betting

AUCKLAND: The National Basketball League has launched an investigation into allegations of illegal betting on the results of several games in the competition this season.

NBL chairman and Basketball New Zealand chief executive Iain Potter confirmed to the Herald on Sunday that on several occasions over the past months, the NBL has asked the TAB to investigate alleged suspicious betting activity in NBL games.

The latest game which Potter has confirmed the league will be looking into is a clash from last Friday between the Taranaki Mountain Airs and Auckland’s Supercity Rangers in New Plymouth.

The Herald on Sunday has learned from several sources that the finish to the game raised eyebrows among spectators and officials.

With just two seconds remaining on the clock, a shot from the Airs reduced the Rangers’ lead to nine points, 9485. While teams would traditionally run out the clock when up by a hefty margin with little time left, the Rangers took a timeout, and on the resulting inbound play, hit a threepointer on the buzzer to win by 12 points.

One of the popular options available to bet on at the TAB is for a team to win by 11 points or more.

The Rangers’ lastsecond shot to make it a 12point victory sparked scenes of celebration among the Rangers players, according to Mountain Airs coach Trent Adam.

‘‘I found [it] unusual to be calling a timeout in that situation of the game. They then ran a play and hit a threepoint shot on the buzzer which invoked a lot of celebration from the Rangers players, which I thought was sort of unusual, to be running the score up in that situation,’’ Adam said.

Rangers coach Jeff Green last night vehemently denied any wrongdoing by his team.

‘‘There is nothing to hide. We know we are not allowed to bet on our league,’’ he said.

‘‘We all know the situation. The whole team. Everyone knows the rules. You get caught, you take the consequences.’’

According to Green, the timeout was called to give a departing player the final shot. ‘‘We wanted to give him the chance to leave on a high.’’

Potter says the NBL’s investigation will include the TAB looking into the game to determine whether anything untoward took place.

‘‘They [TAB] will look to see if there’s anything in that betting activity that suggests if there’s anything suspicious,’’ Potter said.

‘‘If they said ‘yes, we think there is something’, we would have to look at all the evidence we could gather and then make a decision to see whether we would put it into a formal process.’’