They would do anything to get in the paper...Paddy goes world wide by taking on and beating LOCOG . .Their reply...Let's destroy Ireland

No surprise I suppose that the punter is getting unanimous support on here, I suppose!


1.  I know this is a betting forum, and therefore any chance to have a dig at a bookmaker is delightfully seized upon, but how do we know Spoils blew the whistle here, as has been suggested by many? 

Could just as easily be from  disgruntled friend or associate or compeditor to whom O'Leary bragged about the bet to.  Lets face it if he is dumb enough to have the bet in his own name in the first place he is no doubt dumb enough to be shouting his mouth off about it.

2. As regards punter confidentiality, surely if there is a legal investigation a bookmaker is obliged to release records?

3.  I don't know the rules are about betting in inter county hurling but I imagine every athlete is signed up to very stringent set of rules regarding gambling at the Olympics.  Whether he himself is 500/1 or more, is, I believe, irrelevant.

Not enough details have emerged yet but on the bare bones of the story to date, he deserves whatever comes his way.

As it wasn`t illegal at the time seems a storm in a teacup.The fact he made no effort to hide his wager shows it was transparent and within the rules,the bet must have hurt though hence the vindictiveness.

No i am being serious,the rules on betting are recent and didn`t apply then,the fact he made no attempt to conceal his identity meant he certainly was unaware of such rules,the final bit was conjecture on my behalf.

If what you claim is true and rules on beting are recent and did not apply 4 year ago (seems bizzare) one would have though that this might have been mentioned in the article??? 

No doubt the rules have evolved but this is a fairly fundamental breach I would have imagined and likely to have been covered by the rules 4 years ago.

Regarding the source of the allegation ,surely the details of the bet(s) are too detailed to have come from any other source than the bookie in question. Would love to see the PR manager for said company spin that to a dubious Irish public.

Cats well and truly put of the bag AD, with the IOC investigation launched, only a matter of time before these details made public anyway.

ahhh..jaysus.... Borneo

The fact he made no effort to conceal his identity would suggest to me he the new rules were not in place then.

The whistleblower here is surely the person who sent the mail to the IOC on the 21st.

Since then his betting statement from the period will have been perused by many different parties...his solicitor, people at the Irish Olmypic Office etc etc and will be made public in a matter of time. 

I would feel differently about it if the leaking of his betting records caused the original investigation, it didn't.

We need to differentiate between the 'whistleblower' and the 'source of his betting records' for the clarity of the discussion.  Two separate events imo.

Firstly the guy o Leary hasn't committed any offence....he may have broken the sports rules ..... But that's it..... Boyyles are under no obligation to do anything.....they don't hav to release his records to anybody..... The guards aren't involved here.....details of his bet could not possibly have been released by anyone .....except boyyles .......

Bobby,

In response to this email arriving form the whistleblower on the 21st. O'leary will no doubt have requested his betting records from the period.  They will have been widely circulated, to him, to the office of his solicitor, to the Offices of the Irish Olympic Committee etc etc etc. In short floating around everywhere for a week.  There are many potential sources for the leak, including but not limited to the bookmaker. 

O'Leary is not contesting that he placed the bets, so the fact that the records are public now is irrelevant.  They would have come out as part of an enquiry anyway.

Surely the more interesting parts of the story are:

1.  Who is the original whistleblower?

2.  What will happen to O'Leary?

Plenty of tripe posted here but not 1 comment on my earlier post. Keyboard warriors in full cry tonight

While the OCI is – as yet – merely in receipt of an anonymous email making the allegation, the Irish Independent has taken possession of detailed documentary evidence suggesting the competitor used their personal account with a large bookmaking firm

I read that to mean that the details of the account were not in the original email to the IOC.

Anyway..I have said enough on the subject, I shall pipe down now!

So **** isn't on the list of banned websites in China then anyway!

No question he broke the rules but I still can't reconcile the price.

Unless it was a rick and he being a punter and a world class sailor recognised it straightaway and although knowing he was wrong could not resist it at the price.

The double bet means one of 2 things

1. He had someone on the inside who took the clamp off the market after the first bet. After all this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to back an even money shot at 12/1
2. There was an IT glitch that allowed the refer to trader messaqe be overridden.

The first bet was to win a monkey which is probably about right.

The second bet makers no sense all things being equal.

also where does Vincent Hogan stand in this. Credit for holding onto the story until the Saturday (he was given the information on Tuesday or a wrong one for running it at all?

There is more to this than meets the eye as I keep saying

Olympic chiefs probe betting scandal claims

INTERNATIONAL Olympics chiefs are now investigating the allegations of a betting scandal in the Irish squad.

It follows yesterday's statement from sources close to sailor Peter O'Leary that he had bet on a rival in a race in the Beijing Olympics -- but described it as a "naive mistake".

Mr O'Leary yesterday refused to answer questions in person about allegations of illegal betting that have cast such a cloud over the Irish team this week in the wake of revelations by the Irish Independent.

Solicitors acting on Mr O'Leary's behalf have rejected the claims, suggesting they were made "to cause the maximum negative impact" on the sailor.

The ethics watchdog of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) -- the umbrella body for the Games -- last night confirmed it was investigating the case.

It is alleged that Mr O'Leary placed two bets on an opponent he was competing directly against at the 2008 Games, both successful at 12/1.

The bets of €41 and €259 were made through his personal account with a legal bookmaker and brought a winning return of close to €4,000.

The IOC specifically introduced a rule for Beijing outlawing Olympic competitors betting against themselves in competition.

The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) issued a statement yesterday revealing that they had requested "a full disclosure of documentation from the person making the allegation so that the allegation can be investigated in a fair and proper manner".

The revelation came after Mr O'Leary and his crewman David Burrows had a successful first day in the water, leaving them second overall in the Star class.

Hooded, and eyes hidden behind sunglasses, Mr O'Leary swept through the 'mixed zone' staring at his feet, with sailing's High Performance Manager, James O'Callaghan, by his side.

When asked why Mr O'Leary would not be stopping, he said "no reason". Competitors are compelled to walk through mixed zones, but have no obligation to stop and talk to media.

Mr O'Leary and Mr Burrows are strongly fancied to win Ireland's first sailing medal since David Wilkins and James Wilkinson took silver in Moscow 32 years ago.

Some sources close to Mr O'Leary, preferring not to be named, issued a statement in support of the Corkman yesterday, describing his bets in Beijing as "a naive mistake".

Describing Mr O'Leary as "a rookie" at those Games, they "said he was not competing in the medal race so he was not in a position to influence the result".

Furthermore, the statement suggested that Olympic rules on betting changed "about a year ago" and that, at the time, Mr O'Leary was not breaking any rules.

However, to compete in Beijing, all competitors had to sign a declaration that specifically outlaws betting on events in which you are competing.

A spokesman for the OCI refused to comment on the statements by sources close to Mr O'Leary. However, the spokesman denied claims that the rules governing athletes making bets had only been changed a year ago. "They came in at Beijing and continue to this day," he said.

The OCI's code of ethics prohibits participating athletes from betting on Olympic events and anyone found to be in violation of this rule can be either temporarily or permanently excluded from the Games.

The person against whom allegations have been made has the right to details of the claims and to appear before a disciplinary commission or to submit a defence in writing.

Meanwhile, Mr O'Leary has received a total of €128,621 in grant funding from the Irish Sports Council since 2001. A spokesman for the council said Mr O'Leary was an outstanding sportsman and had received a number of high-performance grants in recent years.

However, he refused to say if current or future funding could be in doubt if Mr O'Leary was found to have breached any Olympic rules.

- Vincent Hogan IRISHINDEPENDENT.IE in Weymouth

^ that's the thing that pisses me off about it too. It's real English tabloid stuff.