Sportsbet facing class action to recover millions lost in alleged in-game bets
A class action has been launched on behalf of gamblers to recover millions of dollars allegedly lost through unlawful in-game bets facilitated by Sportsbet.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn Lawyers commenced a class action against Sportsbet in the supreme court of Victoria on 24 December.
It involves in-play bets (also known as live bets) made on sporting events using Sportsbet’s “Fast Code” service – part of the in-play betting product that it offered.
The Maurice Blackburn principal Elizabeth O’Shea said that betting on a sporting event after the event commences is prohibited in Australia, and “there is an exception to this if the bet is made wholly by telephone”.
We believe that Sportsbet’s use of the Fast Code service is not just an attempt to circumvent important laws aiming to prevent gambling harm, it is also illegal because key information about the bet is communicated by punters otherwise than by a voice call.
Sportsbet represented to the plaintiff and group members that the Fast Code service was legal, and in doing so we believe it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct contrary to the Australian Consumer Law.
The class action claims a refund for everyone who lost money on in-play bets using the Fast Code service, open to anyone who lost money made after the beginning of a sporting event in the past six years.
Key events
Fresh fire in Grampians likely started by campers, authorities say
As we flagged earlier today, an out-of-control bushfire is burning near Halls Gap in Victoria, in the Grampians National Park.
Forest Fire Management Victoria has issued a watch and act alert, with those walking along the Boroka Track or Grampians Peaks Trail urged to leave now. There is no threat to the Halls Gap township, the alert said.
In a video to social media, chief officer Chris Hardman said the fire was likely started by campers in the area:
This fire was most likely caused by campers or people that lit a fire over the railing on the edge of the Baroka Lookout. That fire came off the top of that rock and started a new bushfire.
This community has been through enough. This behaviour is reckless, it is irresponsible, and it is unacceptable. We are putting the community at risk for no reason at all.
Hardman urged anyone with knowledge of how the fire began to report it to police.
A bushfire in the Grampians late last year burned for three weeks, after being ignited by lighting strikes, and burnt more than 76,000 hectares, with a fire footprint circumference of 422km.
This WATCH & ACT – BUSHFIRE – Leave Now is for Boroka Track, west of Halls Gap.
Leaving now is the safest option – conditions may change and get worse very quickly. Emergency services may not be able to help you if you decide to stay.
More details at pic.twitter.com/HtY3BkXD2S
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) January 20, 2025
Australian shares up as Trump prepares to resume office
The local share market has moved higher as Donald Trump prepares to resume the US presidency and the first Israeli hostages were released by Hamas.
As AAP reports, around lunchtime the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 26.3 points, or 0.32%, to 8,336.7.
Nine of the ASX’s 11 sectors were in the green at midday, with industrials and health care basically flat. The consumer discretionary, tech and utility sectors were the biggest movers, all up 0.5%.
In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was up 0.6%, Rio Tinto had advanced 1.1% and Fortescue had edged 0.1% higher. Goldminers were lower as the precious metal traded for $US2,694 an ounce after climbing as high as $US2,720 last week.
Northern Star was down 2.5%, Evolution had dropped 1.5% and Westgold had slid 3%.
Ioneer had jumped 20.6% to a month-and-a-half high of 20.5 cents after the lithium-boron producer received a US$996m ($A1.6bn) loan from the US Department of Energy to develop a lithium processing facility in Nevada.
Star was down 5.4% to 13.25 cents after the troubled casino company warned there was “material uncertainty as to the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”, given its precarious finances.
All of the big four banks were modestly higher, up either 0.1 or 0.2%.
Natasha May
NSW Health secretary asks for pause on processing psychiatrist resignations
The NSW Health secretary, Susan Pearce, says she has asked administrative staff to put a “pause on processing resignations”.
Pearce says legally the government can’t not process psychiatrists’ resignations but what she’s asked is that unless someone has confirmed they’re going to resign on a particular date, “please pause as we continue to work through the issue”.
Pearce says that resignations are staggered over a number of weeks and months – “it’s not all about 22 January”.
The reason she has requested the pause is because until a psychiatrist has confirmed their resignation, she wants to avoid an “administrative nightmare of processing” in case the resignation is not confirmed.
Pearce says the number of resignations received – which last week Jackson said was 205 resignations – is “still not settled”.
NSW government asks Industrial Relations Commission to intervene over psychiatrists
Natasha May
The NSW government will ask the Industrial Relations Commission to urgently intervene to address the challenges of psychiatrists in NSW – more than 200 of whom are resigning from tomorrow.
The NSW minister for mental health, Rose Jackson, is holding a press conference this afternoon and says the government will later today seek urgent intervention from the Industrial Relations Commission to arbitrate this challenge.
Jackson says this measure is recognition:
This group [psychiatrists] has such a compelling case that needs to be resolved. We recognise there are real issues with public health psychiatry workforce.
Person of interest in woman’s shooting found interstate
The main person of interest in a woman’s shooting has been arrested in a different state on unrelated weapons charges.
As AAP reports, the 33-year-old woman went to a home in Tallebudgera on Queensland’s Gold Coast at about noon on 8 January when she was shot in the back. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car and investigators suspect the gunshot came from inside the vehicle and went through the seat.
The woman was seriously injured in the stomach and remains in the Gold Coast university hospital in a now stable condition. She has been identified widely by media reports as Linley Anyos.
Det Insp Mark Mooney says she has undergone surgeries where multiple parts of her organs have been removed.
He says the main person of interest in the shooting has been arrested in Victoria for unrelated weapon offences.
Investigators travelled to Victoria to speak to the 49-year-old man last week but no arrest warrant or charges have been issued.
Police are hoping to speak to Anyos this week about what she recalls of the incident, but Mooney says that “due to the trauma that she’s endured, she may not have any recollection of the incident at all”.
Queensland police intend to see the man’s Victoria charges go through the courts before deciding if an arrest warrant needs to be issued to extradite him.
Sportsbet facing class action to recover millions lost in alleged in-game bets
A class action has been launched on behalf of gamblers to recover millions of dollars allegedly lost through unlawful in-game bets facilitated by Sportsbet.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn Lawyers commenced a class action against Sportsbet in the supreme court of Victoria on 24 December.
It involves in-play bets (also known as live bets) made on sporting events using Sportsbet’s “Fast Code” service – part of the in-play betting product that it offered.
The Maurice Blackburn principal Elizabeth O’Shea said that betting on a sporting event after the event commences is prohibited in Australia, and “there is an exception to this if the bet is made wholly by telephone”.
We believe that Sportsbet’s use of the Fast Code service is not just an attempt to circumvent important laws aiming to prevent gambling harm, it is also illegal because key information about the bet is communicated by punters otherwise than by a voice call.
Sportsbet represented to the plaintiff and group members that the Fast Code service was legal, and in doing so we believe it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct contrary to the Australian Consumer Law.
The class action claims a refund for everyone who lost money on in-play bets using the Fast Code service, open to anyone who lost money made after the beginning of a sporting event in the past six years.
100 evacuate from south-west Sydney hotel amid suspected lithium-ion battery fire
Two children have narrowly escaped harm after a fire forced the evacuation of 100 guests from a hotel in Sydney’s south-west.
Fire and Rescue NSW said the cause of the fire was unknown at this stage, but reported “popping” sounds were consistent with the “thermal runaway” of lithium-ion battery fires.
About 1.30am this morning, firefighters were called to a fire on the second floor of a hotel on the Hume Highway at Warwick Farm.
Children in one of the hotel rooms were woken by popping sounds and a bedside table alight, FRNSW said in a statement.
The flames spread to a pillow which was thrown into the hotel room shower by the quick-thinking occupants, and extinguished. However, upon returning to the room, the guests found a mattress well alight and immediately ran to safety outside, where they called [triple zero].
About 100 people were evacuated and the fire was brought under control. FRNSW investigators are examining a number of items at the fire scene, including several rechargeable vapes and other electrical devices.
Tropical Cyclone Sean moving away from Pilbara coast
The Bureau of Meteorology says the category 3 Tropical Cyclone Sean is moving away from the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.
It said heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts were forecast for coastal and island communities, but conditions were expected to ease as the cyclone moved away.
One Facebook user captured footage of the tropical cyclone from Barrow Island yesterday, showing dark clouds encroaching over the horizon.
The Barrow Island weather station recorded gusts up to 113km/h yesterday, and was still recording winds in excess of 80km/h.
PM on calls for national cabinet to meet on antisemitism: ‘People want action, not more meetings’
Asked if he would back mandatory jail time of six years for anyone who attacks a place of worship, as Peter Dutton announced earlier today, Anthony Albanese said:
Peter Dutton, of course, will continue to do what Peter Dutton does. What I’ll continue to do and what people are looking for when it comes to antisemitism is for the country to unite against abhorrent instances.
He said the federal government would continue to work with the states and territories:
There’s no place for antisemitism, and those who are engaged in it should face the full force of the law.
On whether national cabinet would be convened, the PM said “what people want to see isn’t more meetings, they want to see more action”.
Albanese criticises Coalition for opposing ‘every measure we’ve put forward’
The prime minister said the Coalition has opposed “every measure that we’ve put forward” – with today’s aluminium announcement the latest. Anthony Albanese told reporters:
I think that any alternative government that goes to an election just saying they want to go backwards – which is their slogan, it speaks about going back, at least they’re being honest – we’ll go back to the cuts. The last time the Coalition won an election, we saw massive cuts to education, to health – under Peter Dutton – to the ABC, to everything across the board with their horror budget. And they described our cost of living support as a sugar hit just last week.
The PM later added: “If you don’t shape the future, the future will shape you.”
Albanese lashes Coalition’s nuclear energy plans
Anthony Albanese has begun taking questions, and accused the Nationals of “just being negative, like the Coalition”.
It’s like production tax credits for new critical minerals and rare earths, they’re opposed to that as well. They’re opposed to Australian industry, and when you look at the nuclear costings that they put out, [they] were pretty flimsy.
He pointed to a detail in the Coalition’s costings, where they claimed Australia would use 40% less energy in 2050 than the Australian Energy Market Operator says will be needed, and said:
Well, what does that mean? That means businesses like this disappearing, going offshore – and that’s what their vision for Australia is.
Husic says Coalition has no plans to protect blue collar jobs
Ed Husic also took a dig at the Coalition, saying they had “wasted three years not coming up with policy”.
[They are] not being prepared to look people in the eye and say, ‘We have to be ready for global competition.’
What’s your plan to make sure we protect blue collar jobs? Completely missing in action. It’s not good enough to be under prepared going into an election year with no policy and no ability to explain to blue collar communities across the country how you’re backing manufacturing.
Those blue collar workers rightly deserve and expect better than what we’ve got out of a lazy, irresponsible and unprepared Coalition that isn’t putting forward [ideas] …
Customers expect companies to reduce emissions footprint, Husic says
The industry minister Ed Husic is also speaking to reporters, saying that Australia “cannot be left behind” when it comes to getting emissions down. He said:
We’re in a world where our competitors are thinking about how they can make aluminium with less of an emissions footprint and meet customer demand that is expecting the same. We cannot be left behind. We need to think ahead.
We need to plan for the future of places like this and the other smelters that the prime minister mentioned, from Gladstone, Portland, Bell Bay, [so] that they all have a future.
Aluminium investment about making economy more resilient: PM
Anthony Albanese said the $2bn investment to shift the industry to renewables was not only because it would help the environment, but because “it will lower the cost and make them more competitive and ensure that these high value jobs can continue into the future”.
Increasingly, the world is looking to import clean, reliable metals like Australian-made aluminium.
This represents a massive opportunity for growth, and that’s why today we’re investing in Australia’s aluminium industry to provide that certainty for jobs going forward, but also for our economic growth and our national interest going forward as well, to make our economy more resilient.
