I kicked myself for not having a bet. I never had $1: NRL ‘fixer’
The Australian
12:00AM June 9, 2016
Chip Le Grand
Victorian Chief Reporter
Melbourne
Eddie Hayson has a simple question for anyone accusing him of fixing two NRL matches last *season: “Where is the money?’’
The Manly match-fixing story is an irresistible tale of a big-*punting former brothel owner, a banned jockey, a porn king, a roll call of star footballers, claims of $50,000 bribes, a $500,000 betting plunge and a team that tanked, not once but twice, in a scurrilous sporting conspiracy.
As one gambling insider put it, “when you consider the charact*ers involved it would make a great movie, let alone a story’’.
It is also, as things stand, a betting scandal without a bet.
“I haven’t had a dollar,’’ Hay*son told The Australian in a series of interviews. “Not a dollar. No one on my behalf, no friend next door, not a single dollar on either game. It is very troubling.’’
Hayson confirmed that the jockey embroiled in the scandal is Danny Nikolic, currently banned from all Victorian racetracks by Victoria Police.
Hayson told The Australian that he transferred $100,000 to Nikolic last year to bet on an NRL match on his behalf. He said *Nikolic added $20,000 of his own to the wager.
Hayson has since checked with Nikolic and is adamant the money was not gambled on either of the two matches under scrutiny.
His claims are consistent with the absence of suspicious betting detected by Tabcorp, Australia’s licensed bookmakers, and the lack of a dramatic movement in the odds offered by Pinnacle, the most likely offshore operator to take large bets.
This has left NSW Organised Crime Squad detectives examining match-fixing claims with a novel predicament: how to substantiate a fix without evidence that a plunge took place.
The untold story, according to Hayson, is how rumours of an NRL fix first emerged.
The two 2015 matches under scrutiny are Manly’s round 16 loss to South Sydney and round 24 loss to Parramatta.
Hayson said the first he learned of a supposed fix was after the Parramatta game, when a bikie known as Tony T rang him to complain about being cheated out of his money.
He said he subsequently learned that Tony T had been ripped off not by an elaborate match-fixing sting, but by members of his own outlaw motorcycle club. Club figures, having decided they wanted Tony T out of their chapter, told him of a fictitious fix involving NRL matches.
They convinced him to give them his money, with the promise that they’d wager it on a sure thing. To embellish the story, they told Tony T that Eddie Hayson, a well-known Sydney gambling identity and former brothel owner known to associate with high-*profile rugby league players, had arranged the fix.
Only there was no fix and no bets were laid. “They took his money, saying they’d put it on,’’ Hayson said. “He never saw it again. It was a rort to take his money.’’
Hayson said the bogus story was subsequently fed by Tony T to police in a bid to avoid going to jail for other, unrelated offences. From there, rumours started building of a sporting scandal.
Momentum became unstoppable once it leaked that police had warned Manly players to stop socialising with Hayson and adult film producer Con Ange, a dressing-room hanger-on at several NRL clubs. Hayson suspects Ange helped spread the story among Sydney journalists.
Hayson has not told his *account to police. He is still waiting to be interviewed. In the meantime, the scandal has taken on a life of its own, with a commercial partner of Manly this week pulling a $1 million sponsorship deal in response to the corruption allegations.
Although police have not named Manly players in connect*ion to the match-fixing alleg*a*tions, those with known assoc*ia*tions with Hayson have been identified in media reports. One of them is Glenn Stewart, who played for the winning Souths team in the round 16 match.
Hayson is incredulous: “They are saying Glenn Stewart got paid for winning the game at Souths? Who the f..k gets paid for winning?’’ He is also furious at reports that Andrew Johns, a former NRL star who worked with Manly last year as an assistant coach, was *responsible for introducing him to the current players.
He said he has known Kieran Foran, a Sea Eagle last season, since he was a teenager and was introduced to the Stewart brothers, Brett and Glenn, seven or eight years ago through one of their managers.
Hayson’s association with Niko*lic dates back more than 10 years to a race at Flemington, when the jockey rode Gonski, a horse owned by Hayson, to *victory in the Concept Stakes.
More recently, Hayson and Niko*lic registered a business called EKPH, named after Hayson’s initials. Hayson said the company was formed as part of a finance deal and has never traded.
In court documents lodged by Victoria Police justifying the ban against Nikolic, the jockey is *described as having a “lack of *integrity, criminal associations and poor character’’.
The ban, which began last Octo*ber shortly before Nikolic registered the business with Hay*son, followed a three-year suspension from riding imposed by racing authorities after Nikolic was found to have threatened chief steward Terry Bailey.
Hayson insisted there was still good in Nikolic, who declined to return calls from The Australian. Under the terms of his ban, Niko*lic cannot bet on racing but he can bet on other sports. Hayson said that, like most punters, he bet with the TAB and most of the corporate bookmakers.
He said the challenge for big-money punters was convincing *increasingly risk-averse licensed bookmakers to take their bets.
Hayson has held accounts with Sportsbet, a company that recent*ly signed a $60 million advertising deal to remain the official wagering partner of the NRL, Crownbet, Ladbrokes, William Hill and the betting exchange Betfair.
He also bet in cash at TAB *retail outlets. He said he has never placed a bet with Pinnacle, the largest of the offshore sports *betting agencies.
In recent months, Hayson has been banned by the TAB.
He doesn’t currently bet with Sportsbet and usually employs third parties, known in the industry as “bowlers’’, to place bets with other bookies on his behalf. He also bets through commission agents, who are able to place bets with the corporate bookmakers, in return for a fee.
In Hayson’s world, $100,000 isn’t large bet. “If there was a rort on, I would be trying to put $4m on, not $100,000. Don’t insult me.’’ He said hasn’t bet big on NRL matches over the past two seasons and prefers to punt on the AFL.
His only regret about the two NRL matches under scrutiny is not backing Parramatta in the Eels’ now infamous upset of the Sea Eagles.
“I remember sitting in bed watching the game at home. I said: ‘Look how wet it is here. This is a joke. I wish I was on Parramatta.’
“I kicked myself for not having a bet. I never had one dollar.’’
