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Ssb - all bets are off
Steve Davis was only saying what everyone in the snooker world already knew when he revealed in the Daily Star on Sunday that players have for years bet on themselves to lose and bet on high breaks being beaten.
It's called insurance betting. It also happens to be against the rules.
There was a minor scandal in the 1990s when John Spencer, the then WPBSA chairman, was revealed to have done it.
As Davis says, it doesn't mean players were trying to lose. They were just covering themselves against defeat.
Nevertheless, it remains a shady practice open to misinterpretation and Barry Hearn quite rightly wants it stamped out.
Hearn has raised prize money on the circuit by £1m. There is now an opportunity to play more and earn more money.
Players unable to make a living from the game should get another job, not top up their incomes with money won from bookies through losing.
It does not do anything for snooker's image to have players found to be indulging in side bets on their matches - even though most of it has been done in all innocence.
In the last few years a culture has grown up in which a blind eye has been turned to all this. It started when the round robins were introduced for the Grand Prix - something bookies hated - and has ended with the world no.1 being suspended.
Players need to realise that the sport now largely depends on the financial support of the betting industry - just as it once did on tobacco companies.
It does nothing for snooker's prospects to have players dragged into stories about betting.
I know some people find the involvement of betting companies distasteful and would argue it encourages a culture of gambling. Perhaps it's therefore hypocritical to try and clobber players for betting.
Well, the game has been so badly run in the past that snooker has few other options right now.
And the fact is, snooker is one of the most honest sports out there. Players routinely own up to fouls - and not just on TV - and generally maintain an etiquette that has existed for over a century.
As in any sport there are rotten apples - and they must be dealt with.
This is why the culture of small scale betting that goes on behind the scenes has to stop.
Like so many other areas of our sport, the old way of doing things has to change.
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It's called insurance betting. It also happens to be against the rules.
There was a minor scandal in the 1990s when John Spencer, the then WPBSA chairman, was revealed to have done it.
As Davis says, it doesn't mean players were trying to lose. They were just covering themselves against defeat.
Nevertheless, it remains a shady practice open to misinterpretation and Barry Hearn quite rightly wants it stamped out.
Hearn has raised prize money on the circuit by £1m. There is now an opportunity to play more and earn more money.
Players unable to make a living from the game should get another job, not top up their incomes with money won from bookies through losing.
It does not do anything for snooker's image to have players found to be indulging in side bets on their matches - even though most of it has been done in all innocence.
In the last few years a culture has grown up in which a blind eye has been turned to all this. It started when the round robins were introduced for the Grand Prix - something bookies hated - and has ended with the world no.1 being suspended.
Players need to realise that the sport now largely depends on the financial support of the betting industry - just as it once did on tobacco companies.
It does nothing for snooker's prospects to have players dragged into stories about betting.
I know some people find the involvement of betting companies distasteful and would argue it encourages a culture of gambling. Perhaps it's therefore hypocritical to try and clobber players for betting.
Well, the game has been so badly run in the past that snooker has few other options right now.
And the fact is, snooker is one of the most honest sports out there. Players routinely own up to fouls - and not just on TV - and generally maintain an etiquette that has existed for over a century.
As in any sport there are rotten apples - and they must be dealt with.
This is why the culture of small scale betting that goes on behind the scenes has to stop.
Like so many other areas of our sport, the old way of doing things has to change.
More...