also works for Sportsbet<\/a> as a horse racing analyst, but Butters told the tribunal he was unaware of the association.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776219073_772_50d7ff8d3af04e15a8490e300966e2ce.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Nick Foot (centre) was a field umpire at the Port vs St Kilda match at Adelaide Oval on Sunday. (Getty Images: Josh Chadwick)<\/p>\n
The AFL has previously approved Foot to work at Sportsbet as well as being a field umpire for the league.<\/p>\n
Alliance For Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello said it was “real hypocrisy on the part of the AFL” to allow the umpire to also work for Sportsbet while players were strictly not allowed to be involved in gambling on their sport.<\/p>\n
Dr Costello said he was not questioning Foot’s integrity \u2014 “he is the meat in the sandwich” \u2014 but the AFL should not be taking money from Sportsbet as a sponsor and through fees on each bet laid while also having an umpire work for the company.<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/04002f3ac0ac530b562302c5e65126ef.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Tim Costello says the AFL’s connections with gambling look bad. (ABC News: Peter Healy)<\/p>\n
He said it was at least a “perceived” conflict of interest, if not an actual one.<\/p>\n
“We know that footballers like Zak Butters would not be allowed to be working for Sportsbet in racing there like Nick Foot, the field umpire,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Well, if footballers can’t, why can umpires? They’re in the same industry and that perception itself is really bad.<\/p>\n
“Secondly, the perception with the AFL is extraordinary \u2014 it’s a not-for-profit charity, the AFL really \u2026 that conflict of interest is real.”<\/p>\n
The AFL and the AFL Umpires Association have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Issues with on-field audio<\/p>\n
Unusually, no audio was heard on the broadcast of the interaction, nor was it available to the tribunal.<\/p>\n
Former umpire “Razor” Ray Chamberlain told 774 ABC Melbourne this morning that the AFL should put more effort into having more sound available from the game.<\/p>\n
“For me it’s like, ‘Come on, let’s lean in there’ and create a better situation there where we don’t have this situation again,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And then the second part is how do they want their officials and players \u2014 but their officials [in particular] \u2014 to handle these situations moving forward, because I don’t think anyone won thus far out of this week.”<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776219074_55_b0e3e8752e2cecf2fdab706b623e0129.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Sportsbet is a major sponsor of the AFL. (AAP: Julian Smith)<\/p>\n
AFL Players’ Association chief executive James Gallagher said it was “deeply concerning” the tribunal did not accept all the evidence of what was said from Butters or his teammate Ollie Wines and that there was “sufficient doubt” about what happened to not uphold the charge.<\/p>\n
Port waiting on reasons<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide Football Club chair David Koch told FiveAA it was “pretty certain” the decision would be appealed but the club would wait for the tribunal to release its reasons for its finding this morning.<\/p>\n
He said the AFL Integrity Unit had 40\u201360 people working for it and Foot’s association with Sportsbet was approved.<\/p>\n
He said it was fair that umpires took another job beyond their part-time role on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But [they] probably need to choose carefully where that job is and who it is with, I would think,” Koch said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reporting of Port Adelaide player Zak Butters for umpire abuse has raised questions about how the AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[294136,3443,638,64,63,55,639,64596,294635,6082,295524,85,26604,23510],"class_list":{"0":"post-607496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-abusive-language","9":"tag-adelaide","10":"tag-afl","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-david-koch","16":"tag-nick-foot","17":"tag-port-adelaide","18":"tag-sportbet","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-tribunal","21":"tag-zak-butters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}