The Australian Football League (AFL) has reportedly admitted that it’s facing challenges spotting whether players are using inside information to influence betting markets, even though the league has strong ties to the gambling industry. According to Guardian Australia, league executives are seriously concerned about a surge in “integrity risks” tied to sports betting, calling it “unprecedented.”
The documents reveal that the AFL, which is the top sports league of Aussie rules football, has limited insight into overall betting activity, describing its access as just the “tip of the iceberg.” It is also worried about several “bottlenecks” and “blindspots” that make it harder to quickly catch players, coaches, or staff who might be betting on games or sharing inside information.
A December 2024 internal AFL document revealed growing concerns over “mounting integrity threats” from the rapidly evolving gambling industry. The league highlighted three key cases exposing flaws in its monitoring system, which included an umpire allegedly leaking game outcomes, with betting patterns only flagged after a major loss.
This is an astounding admission by the @afl.
Just last week they have allowed Umpire Nick Foot from @2unitspodcast to work for Sportsbet, while this article shows they have umpires given out betting information to people.
The AFL has sold the integrity of the game to gambling. pic.twitter.com/YaDoUXJ70O
— Mark Kempster (@OffOdds) March 3, 2025
In another case, a player reportedly shared inside information about a position change, leading to strategic bets, and an AFLW health professional allegedly used a partner’s account to bet on injury-related information. The AFL claims slow data sharing from bookmakers and outdated monitoring methods are delaying investigations, making it harder to detect and prevent suspicious betting activity.
The revelation comes as it has been looking for ways to increase its revenue and has turned to the betting scene. The AFL has been negotiating with gambling companies like Entain and Sportsbet since the beginning of 2025.
AFL faces ongoing criticism from anti-gambling lobby
In August, ReadWrite reported that there was a big push to ban gambling ads in Australia within three years, with over 60 prominent figures, including ex-PMs John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull, signing an open letter.
Gambling ad reform had been discussed for years, but the government finally seemed to give in to pressure from key stakeholders.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held top-level talks with sports and media leaders, including the AFL and NRL. While there was strong support for a total ban across TV, radio, and online, it later became clear that an outright ban wouldn’t happen after all.
However, the AFL reportedly wants to revamp its integrity system by making more than 80 bookmakers share gambling data with an AI-managed database to catch suspicious bets in real time. It’s a costly plan, and the AFL wants bookmakers to foot the bill. Consequently, the proposal has sparked legal battles, tough negotiations, and public scrutiny.
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