NRL bookies yesterday halted all betting on the market around the first NRL coach to be sacked after a large betting plunge on Cowboys coach Graham Murray to get the chop first.
Hot on the heels of investigations into illegal betting rings around NRL running metres, with allegations around stat’s people pocketing tips to write up the wrong information, it seems NRL Rugby League is a hugely lucrative betting market that many are trying to exploit with any bit of inside information they have.
Sportingbet Australia closed their markets after 5 new betting accounts were created yesterday with each punter loading up around $1000 to $4000 on Graham Murray to get the boot and be the first coach sacked in 2008.
The North Queensland Cowboys have now lost 3 games on the trot and remain at the foot of the NRL ladder, only ahead of Souths.
Murray is already leaving the club prior to the 2009 NRL Season, with former Cowboys assistant and now Canberra boss Neil Henry set to control the Townsville club on a lucrative 5 year agreement from 2009.
After yesterdays betting plunge, the cloak and dagger betting seems to suggest Murray will be ousted much sooner.
“Usually when their is smoke in the NRL there is fire,” said Sportingbet boss Michael Sullivan.
“Big money has been thrown at this market, suggesting that Murray will get the sack.
“When something like this occurs, we simply have to put the market down, shut up shop.”
Other NRL coaches in this market incorporate the Bulldogs Steve Folkes and Nathan Brown at St George Illawarra, both of which won’t be coaching their respective NRL sides in 2009.