The Irish Rugby Football Union has placed bets with a bookmaker on Ireland’s progress at the forthcoming World Cup in New Zealand to cover the cost of player and coach win bonuses. The Irish Times' Gavin Cummiskey reports.
"Following the disclosure, in the Guardian newspaper, that the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) placed bets of up to €284,000 to cover England’s progress to the semi-finals and beyond, the union confirmed to The Irish Times that it has laid similar bets at the previous three rugby World Cups.
“The practice of insuring progression of teams in professional sport is as common as insuring private houses,” said an IRFU spokesman yesterday.
“The IRFU, through their relationship with sponsors, Paddy Powers, effectively takes out an insurance policy on the performance of the team during the World Cup to allow the union to offset and minimise the financial outlay during the tournament.
"IRB regulation 6.2 prohibits any “player, referee, touch judge, coach, trainer, selector, health professional (associated with any team or player), member of team or club management, or any match official” from entering “into any wager, bet or any form of financial speculation, directly or indirectly as to the result or any other dimension or aspect of any match, tour, tournament or series of matches (international or otherwise) in which he is participating.
This, however, does not prevent a governing body from doing so."
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