IPL- A Pleasure Paradise for Ambitious Bookies; 12 second telecast lag to be investigated by ED

IPL- A Pleasure Paradise for Ambitious Bookies; 12 second telecast lag to be investigated by ED: Bookies are getting richer and richer during every season of the million dollar league, the IPL. A 12-second broadcast lag, stolen live feed and ball-by-ball live commentary over the phone from inside the stadium — bookies are milking it all, an investigation by the Ahmedabad unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed. Several arrests have also been made, sources said. A 12-second broadcast lag, stolen live feed and ball-by-ball live commentary over the phone from inside the stadium — bookies are milking it all, an investigation by the Ahmedabad unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed. Reliable sources have also made it clear that several arrests have been made. “We are also investigating how these people are getting illegal access to ‘live uplink’ feed of IPL matches much before it is beamed to viewers,” an officer of the unit said.

The main job of the ED is to track money laundering cases and foreign exchange money violations. The ED has been trying to investigate who was responsible for installing high frequency antennas that enabled bookies contact with the link. It was also investigating UK-based betting site Betfair for any possible collusion with the arrested bookies, sources said.
It will write to the UK authorities to seek details of transactions involving Betfair. Investigators suspect hawala channels (illegally moving money by skirting banking channels) were used in the transactions between Betfair and these bookies.

Over the last two months, the ED’s Ahmedabad unit has unearthed a ` 2,000-crore international betting racket. It also made arrests under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Two of the bookies were arrested from Delhi and Gurgaon in May.