SPORTS betting agency JusBet will not be offering wagers on local sporting events.

That is the position of Brian George, the president and chief executive officer of JusBet’s parent entity Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), as he addressed the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange forum of editors and reporters at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue base yesterday.

JusBet facilitates gambling on various international sporting events including football, basketball, cricket and baseball matches, as well as athletics championships.

George, whose SVL was launched in Jamaica in June 2001, said overseas club football competitions, in particular the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, are the runaway favourites among local bettors.

The gaming and entertainment head honcho, however, ruled out any chance of gamblers trying their hands in the local sporting arena.

Citing the ever-present and perpetual dangers of illicit gambling — namely match-fixing — the SVL boss said his company will not risk being compromised locally by the “dark side” which lurks in the shadow of sports betting.

“I’m absolutely opposed to us taking bets on local events,” the Trinidad & Tobago native said in a resolute tone.

“Because the benefit of sports betting is a large pool with randomness that does not allow concentrated money to affect the integrity of the game. “Supreme Ventures does not wish to be part of any process that could potentially have implications. To say that sports betting does not have a dark side to it… everybody has heard of betting scandals and betting scandals occur when there is a lot of money that will be impacting on the outcome of an event,” he added.

In further clarifying the stance, the SVL CEO gave an outline of the nature and the depth of close examination that is necessary to prevent or minimise integrity breaches.

“I’m aware that there is a tremendous amount of work… a lot of people don’t realise the amount of technology that goes into the scrutiny of bets, the timing of bets, the quantity of bets, the odds of the games and the likely outcomes and the actual outcomes.

“There is a lot of investigation that goes on to protect the integrity of the system…We just don’t think that’s appropriate for us here,” he explained.

The vice-president of Supreme Ventures group corporate communications, Sonia Davidson, said the company previously turned down an offer by stakeholders to provide bets on the local Premier League football competition.

“We told them we don’t want to go there. We don’t want to get into the local thing and then you hear that matches were fixed,” Davidson said.

She shared that when issues arise on the international circuit, the sports betting management agencies would have measures in place to handle the accompanying examinations and investigations.

“We have heard the (match-fixing allegation) stories in the IPL (Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament). That’s why we remain with international sports because if anything happens, they (the agencies) will pick it up and clamp it down,” she added.

The much-hyped, inaugural Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is scheduled to begin in late July and George said JusBet will be allowing cricket followers to place bets on matches.

He expressed confidence that the system provided by his international partner Intralot is rock solid.

“At this time I have heard nothing (negative about the CPL) to give me any reason to pause. Of course (we will offer bets), it’s a regional thing.

“We will take bets on a Caribbean event, but not on a local event. Anytime you have sports betting there is a need to have an aggressive monitoring of any of those issues. We are confident in the system that we use, which is provided by Intralot. They have a very sophisticated set of matrices that they use to advice us of issues,” he said.

The Greece-based Intralot provides sports betting management, gaming technologies and betting odds for organisations globally and is said to have agreements and partnerships in over 50 countries.