Doha--The global sports betting market is worth up to $3-trillion, the vast majority of that generated by illegal gambling, a United Nations conference on crime being held in Doha heard on Wednesday.
Patrick Jay, a British-based independent betting expert, said around 65 per cent of that global figure was spent on football betting, with the Asian market the centre of sports gambling.
Tennis and cricket account for a further 12 per cent each of that $3-trillion, said Jay who was speaking at a session on match-fixing in sport at the week-long UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, currently being held in Doha.
Jay told the conference session that a conservative estimate was that the betting market was worth around one trillion.
However, he said afterwards, he thought the figure was much higher.
"The trillion is all global sports betting, of which the illegal amount would be 90 per cent of it," he told AFP.
"I'll let you into a secret," he continued. "I say the trillion figure because I can just about get away with it without being laughed off stage.
"The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of people think it is less than that, the only three or four people in the world that I actually respect on this thinks it is two or three times that. And it is growing."
Jay, a former director of trading at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said illegal gambling in Asia was driven by matches which are shown live on television there and played at the right time for a betting audience.
AFP
