TAB not going to change policy

TAB bookmaker Mark Stafford says the decision to pay out on bets made on Valerie Adams to win shot put gold at the London Olympics is a one-off, rather than the norm.

The betting agency adopts up a "pay on the podium" approach so they don't have to to deal with appeals or drug cheats because it said it would be a logistical nightmare to regularly pay out on overturned results.

But Stafford said they made the call to honour bets made on Adams in good faith, after she was upgraded to first place overnight when Belarusian competitor Nadzeya Ostapchuk tested positive for a banned substance and was stripped of the gold medal.

"The hard rule is you've got to be aware if you have a bet on Val you know that she could be up against a drug cheat," Stafford said.

"In any sport it's part of the framework you bet into. But it's just because it's the Olympics, it's Val and it's a gold medal we've decided as a one-off - no precedent setting - we'll just be the good bastards."

Punters who placed single bets on Adams electronically could expect their accounts to be credited within the next 24 hours, while if an Adams' victory was part of a multi bet it would be honoured by the end of the week, Stafford said.

The biggest issue will come from bets that were wagered manually at a TAB outlet because people could have thrown away their tickets and would have to fill in a lost ticket form to claim their winnings.

"It's massive, logistically," Stafford said, although he couldn't put an exact figure on the number of bets on Adams.

"We might be in for a rude shock. It's going to be a lot.

"I know there were thousands of multi bets including her, but what the split is between [online] accounts and agency bets, we just don't know.

"I think it's going to take quite a few people quite a long time so we'll get through it but the only downside is people might have to wait. But it's better than getting nothing."

If people were lucky enough to have held on to their tickets they could go into a TAB outlet and claim their loot.

Meanwhile, the last Kiwi athlete to be upgraded in the medal stakes after a drugs cheat was caught has voiced his thoughts on Adams' triumph via Twitter.

Nick Willis was bumped up to a silver medal from a bronze in the 1500m at the Beijing Games in 2008 when Bahrain runner Rashid Ramzi, who had won gold, was disqualified for doping.

"Val should now get a gold medal ceremony at Eden Park," Willis tweeted last night.

"Val was robbed the opp to stand on top of the podium and hear the national anthem. cheats must be caught out of comp before games."

Willis didn't receive his silver medal until 2011, three years after the Beijing Games.

 

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