Manly officials reported a $340,000 betting plunge on Newcastle's Toyota Cup team to NRL officials
Concerned Manly officials reported a $340,000 betting plunge on Newcastle's Toyota Cup team to NRL officials at Brookvale Oval on Sunday.
The TAB's Glenn Munsie rang Manly media director Peter Peters shortly before the kick-off to reveal a series of mammoth bets on the game.
A punter had had a number of $50,000 multi bets including AFL teams, all anchored with Newcastle beating Manly's Toyota Cup side by more than 8 1/2 points.
The plunge came unstuck and the punter lost his money when the Knights won by only four points.
One of Sydney's biggest punters Eddie Hayson denied yesterday he was the man behind the plunge as did the big commission operators.
Peters said he passed the information to the NRL ground manager so it could be officially recorded.
"With all the recent publicity about betting and alleged match fixing, I thought we should pass it on," Peter said.
The TAB regularly holds bets of up to $20,000 on Toyota Cup games but officials were shocked by the size of this plunge.
"It's by far the biggest bets we've ever held on Toyota Cup," said TAB spokesman Glen Munsie.
"You get a couple of decent bets on teams but nothing of this magnitude. I rang Manly to make sure there hadn't been a lot of changes.We often ring clubs when there's been a good go on a team."
The size of the betting puts more pressure on the NRL to introduce an integrity panel to investigate big betting on football games.
This move has been recommended by racing's top steward Ray Murrihy after his investigation into the Melbourne Storm wooden spoon plunge last year but nothing has happened since his report.
The TAB holdings on rugby league has now increased to an incredible $160 million a year.
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