She's been earning around £30 million a year with endorsements and corporate sponsorship. Clearly it's been worth the risk. The hypocrisy of those corporate companies is laughable though. They're happy to throw millions at her when she's the apparent golden girl but now she's been caught out they run for the hills as fast as they can to distance themselves from a 'cheat'.

To be fair - BOTH parties know the end-result should the athlete get found out. There can be no complaints from either side.

By the way - did anyone else think Ernie Els SIX-PUTTING FROM TWO FEET the first hole at the Masters ... erm ... [istrange?[/i

Adding to the above, I used to work for one of the big four betting companies and got to know several of the guys operating in a hardened IT sub-basement behind three inches of steel. Knowing the way those guys operated they would have been all over that incident like a rash.

People think I'm suspicious. Betting companies are like a privatised KGB.

So what do they make of Leicester City's rise to the top, the demise of Chelsea, or even the poor start from the Rhinos ?

Given the corruption and betting scandals we've heard about already in other areas can we trust anything anymore ?

Well, I'm still waiting for whatever action was promised in the wake of accusations that up to FOUR THOUSAND MATCHES had been fixed in the German Bundesliga.

Another one of these headlines which sink without trace.

Regarding Leicester, whilst the big betting companies take an interest in ANY bet over £20.00 placed either on-line or in a branch (in which case your photo will have been taken) they are less likely to look at performance over a lengthy time period (i.e. a season) than single events within tournaments or matches which are wide open to fixing.

If I could compile a list of criteria which they deem "suspicious" Els six-putt would be right near the top. Big name player (a former champion?). Big tournament. The FIRST HOLE. An extremely unlikely outcome etc. etc.

Of course, we shouldn't forget that happens even to honest people. But I can guarantee that a hell of a lot of processing power will have been devoted to bets placed on Els over the last few weeks (maybe months). If there's any kind of correlation they'll find it. Whether anything will be done about it is another question entirely...

Has this morphed into another fixed thread, or are you taking something and getting yourself muddled up? This isn't the betting thread, where your rather quaint Els conspiracy theory was debunked. It's about Sharapova, isn't it?

Or, have I missed an opportunity - because if I could have got a bet on whether pro tennis players take substances then I'd have been on, but I can't find any bookies willing to give odds

Do you usually wait EIGHT WEEKS before responding to a post?

Don't answer that.

I think the eight weeks is the average time between ANY posts on the Mugwump's blogs page - sorry Sin Bin. You should be grateful, you're almost talking to yourself. Although actually that's all you ever do

Hmmm ... it seems I have at least one obsessed viewer.

Tiger Woods - committed adultery (nothing to do with his sport), loses his sponorships etc

Sharapova - Caught with banned substances (potentially giving her an advantage over her opponents) - keeps her sponsors.

Yeah... women are very hard done by in sport, aren't they

Don't those stats just prove that mugwump posts a lot to that thread and people who browse will typically open a thread if there's a new post?

Maybe a views per post working would settle your squabble.

I'm more than comfortable saying I write for myself first, maybe a dozen people (they know who they are) second - plus anyone else who might be interested (or not).

Whilst I'll own up to the odd guffaw over the irony of threads which are singularly unappetizing to the low-IQ crowd (a.k.a. the majority) outperforming dreary populism - it's not something I attach any real significance to.

Make that 13.