Two lower tier rugby league players in Yorkshire have been banned for breaching the game’s rules on betting.
The Rugby Football League announced on Friday that Batley winger Johnny Campbell has been suspended for 12 months for placing bets on a number of matches, including the 2013 League One Grand Final in which he played.
Team-mate Ayden Faal, who did not play in that match, has been suspended for six months after placing a bet for the first points of the game to come from a Batley penalty goal.
There was no indication of match-fixing.
Batley lost the match at the Leigh Sports Village 19-12 to defending champions Sheffield Eagles after leading 12-0 at half-time.
Campbell placed a bet for the first points of the game to come from a Batley penalty goal, which he lost, and placed a handicap bet on the fixture.
Under RFL operational rules, players are barred from betting on any rugby league match, whether it is for his own account or on behalf of anybody else.
Campbell and Faal were also deemed to have breached the rule which forbids players from using any information that is not in the public domain or readily accessible by the public for betting purposes.
An RFL statement added that both players were investigated after information supplied by the sports betting intelligence unit of the Gambling Commission, with whom the RFL works collaboratively to monitor unusual betting patterns.
Campbell, 26, was selected in the 2010 Championship dream team after scoring 30 tries to break the club’s record for tries in a season.
Faal, 27, who formerly played with Leeds, Doncaster, Hunslet and Dewsbury, missed the Grand Final through injury.
Batley chief executive Paul Harrison said the club’s directors would meet over the weekend to determine the fate of the players, who both appeared in the team’s pre-season friendlies and were expected to be selected by coach John Kear for Sunday’s opening match of the new season at Leigh.
Harrison told Press Association Sport: “We’re going to speak to the players over the weekend and make sure they get the correct help. We’re working with the RFL on player welfare.”
It is the third betting scandal to hit rugby league in the last decade.
In 2004 St Helens and Great Britain duo Sean Long and Martin Gleeson were banned for three months and four months respectively and fined STG7,500 ($A14,000) after betting on their weakened team to lose a Super League match on the handicap coupon to Bradford.
In 2011, Doncaster player Shaun Leaf was given an 18-month ban after admitting a series of gambling offences, including betting on his team to lose heavily in a Challenge Cup tie against Wakefield.