Online bookmaker Sportsbet is the master of the so-called “novelty” bet, allowing punters to wager on virtually any outcome — from the gender of this year’s Big Brother winner to the identity of the Queen’s next chef. These niche bets aren’t about raking in money — they usually attract a small number of punters betting insignificant amounts — but garnering free publicity and drawing in new customers beyond racing and sports devotees.

On Tuesday, Sportsbet opened a market on the identity of the next Media Watch host, installing former presenter Paul Barry as the $4 favourite. It wasn’t just the list of unlikely contenders — from Andrew Bolt to Alan Jones — that made this an eye-catching bet, but the fact the race had already been run and the winner determined.

Crikey reported last week that a successor to Jonathan Holmes had been chosen some time ago and the handover had been planned for months. It’s understood former ABC Television boss Kim Dalton signed off on the decision before leaving in February. One well-placed ABC insider estimates around a dozen people within Aunty would have known the new host’s identity.

At around 5pm yesterday, Barry was still the favourite at $4 — by 6pm he had firmed to $3 after an apparent betting plunge. By around 7pm Sportbet had suspended betting and wiped the contest from its website.

A spokesman for the company told Crikey this morning that only around six bets had been placed on the contest. Betting was suspended, he said, because Barry’s name was circulating on Twitter as the host. “It was standard operating procedure,” the spokesman said. Crikey, however, has not found any evidence of such tweets.

Whatever the reason, it was a wise decision. This morning, The Australian Financial Review reported Barry will be the next host. Crikey understands the ABC will make an official announcement later today that ex-Four Corners hack turned freelancer and author — who hosted the program in 2000 before being sacked by Jonathan Shier — will take over in July.

Holmes told Crikey: “I certainly didn’t have a bet and as far as I know no one at Media Watch did.”

If anyone with advance knowledge of Barry’s appointment did place a bet on his appointment, they’d be well-advised to keep it to themselves — especially if they live in NSW. The Crimes Amendment (Cheating at Gambling) Act 2012 states:

A person who possesses information in connection with an event that is inside information, and who knows or is reckless as to whether the information is inside information, is guilty of an offence if the person:

(a) bets on the event, or
(b) encourages another person to bet on the event in a particular way, or
(c) communicates the information to another person who the first person knows or ought reasonably to know would or would be likely to bet on the event.

A spokesman for Sportsbet told Crikey they didn’t see any problem with taking bets on the Media Watch host because an official decision had not been announced.

“It’s not illegal for anyone to bet on these markets,” spokesman Ben Hawes said, adding that “people aren’t getting set to win large amounts on markets such as these”.

But Sally Gainsbury, Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Southern Cross University’s Centre for Gambling Education & Research, says such contests pose a threat to the integrity of gambling.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” she said. “You shouldn’t be taking bets on an outcome that’s pre-determined.”