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The Rooster v The Dragons

This week Jason Taylor looks at how the Roosters fast foot work may cause havoc for the big Dragon forwards.

Several bookmakers have suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon following a stream of bets for premiers Melbourne to finish last. Speculation was rife that the Storm, the title favourites, could be in danger of losing competition points for a salary cap breach.

It is believed Storm officials are in Sydney today hearing the findings of an NRL probe.

The NRL said it had no comment to make.

Melbourne Storm players celebrate their 2010 World Club Challenge victory.

Melbourne Storm players celebrate their 2010 World Club Challenge victory. Photo: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Sportingbet Australia and SportsAlive both shut down their wooden spoon markets after fielding several bets at 250-1, with punters standing to win $10,000 on single bets.

Title favourites Melbourne are fourth on the NRL ladder after four wins and two losses and have been the subject of a salary cap investigation.

TAB Sportsbet left its market open, but wound the Storm into 20-1 for the spoon after taking a $200 bet at 200-1 for a collect of $40,000 last night.

The NRL has been investigating a third-party agreement between Storm captain Cameron Smith and FoxSports. Under salary cap rules, third-party agreements do not count under the salary cap as long as the club played no part in negotiating the deal. The deal has been queried as the Storm is wholly owned by News Ltd and FoxSports is part owned by News along with Consolidated Media Holdings.

The Herald-Sun newspaper reported last week that NRL auditor Ian Schubert had also insisted three other third-party deals must count under the Storm's salary cap as well as the termination payment to Origin star Dallas Johnson.

"We took three bets to win $10,000 and another to win $8000 for the Storm to win the wooden spoon all within 10 minutes of each other this morning," Sportingbet Australia spokesman Bill Richmond said.

"You don't take a series of bets like that unless someone knows something and we have suspended betting on the wooden spoon as a result.

"Melbourne is now our worst result for the wooden spoon despite the fact they are premiership favourites."

IASbet also suspended betting on the wooden spoon this morning, with the Storm paying a dividend of $151.

IASbet.com’s Matt Campbell said his agency had suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon after a couple of “fairly odd” bets when Melbourne were $251-1. He said there had been “nothing big” with IASbet, and the wooden spoon was a “more of a novelty market”, but his agency was in no hurry to lift its ban.

“We’ll sit tight, we’ll sit on our hands for the moment,” he said, indicating his agency was “reacting accordingly” to the rumours circulating about Melbourne Storm’s possible salary cap penalties.

Most agencies do not run markets on the wooden spoon. Betfair, which runs a betting exchange, rather than operating as a bookmaker, says it has not had any significant bets on Melbourne to win the wooden spoon.

Betfair spokesman Hugh Taggart said that his agency would not avoid a market based on hearsay and rumour, and it would take advice from the NRL for Betfair to stop the public betting on the market.

“We would only avoid a market in an extreme circumstance.

“Punters always bet on rumour and innuendo.

“Our markets will be dictated by what happens in the public domain.”

Taggart said there were only $12,000 in bets currently matched on the wooden spoon market.

TABSportsbet spokesman Glenn Munsie said he didn’t think much of the initial $200 bet on Wednesday night until further bets followed on Thursday morning.‘‘The spark starts, becomes a brushfire, becomes a bushfire,’’ Munsie said.‘‘It all started in a couple of places this morning and they’re now coming from everywhere.’’

In 2002, the Bulldogs were deducted 37 competition points and fined $500,000 after being found guilty of salary cap breaches totalling more than $1 million in two seasons.

It took the Bulldogs from the top of the table to eventual wooden spooners.

The New Zealand Warriors were docked four points in 2006 for less serious breaches, but the punishment ultimately cost them a finals berth

AAP, Will Brodie and smh.com.au