A decades-long friendship with a former Australian Football League umpire has landed a 36-year-old Melbourne man in legal trouble, after he pleaded guilty to running a two-year insider betting scheme that exploited confidential voting information for the prestigious Brownlow Medal.
William Forde entered guilty pleas to six corruption and betting-related charges during a Friday hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, linked to manipulated wagers placed on the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Brownlow Medal, the AFL’s highest individual honor for season-long player performance. Prosecutors agreed to withdraw 47 additional charges ahead of the plea, and the court approved an application to hear the matter through a summary proceeding rather than a full trial.
Forde’s case is one part of a wider investigation launched by Victoria Police’s specialist sporting integrity unit, which laid charges against Forde, former umpire Michael Pell, and two other co-accused in August 2023. The court confirmed that Pell and the two other defendants are currently contesting their identical charges, with a committal hearing scheduled for next month to determine whether their cases will proceed to a full criminal trial.
Prosecutor Greg Buchhorn outlined the Crown’s case to the court on Friday, laying out how the long-running conspiracy operated. Forde and Pell have been close since childhood, having grown up together and attended the same Melbourne schools. In 2021, Pell – who served as an umpire in AFL matches – began sharing confidential details of the three-vote selections he awarded after each game, a key component of the final Brownlow Medal vote count. Buchhorn explained that Forde recruited four additional associates to place wagers on the predetermined vote outcomes, to avoid drawing attention to the scheme.
To cover their tracks, the syndicate adopted multiple layers of concealment: they used end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms to communicate, shared handwritten notes of vote details as image files to avoid detection, placed decoy bets on unrelated match rounds to mask their activity, and on one occasion transported thousands of dollars in cash to a regional Victorian town inside a pillowcase to avoid money tracing.
After the full 2021 Brownlow Medal count was concluded and the winner announced, the scheme netted the group approximately AU$40,750 in illegal profits, which prosecutors allege were split between Forde, his four betting associates, and Pell.
The conspiracy expanded in 2022, after Pell was promoted to a full-time regular field umpire position, giving him access to a greater number of vote selections ahead of the annual count. Buchhorn told the court that on August 21, 2022, just after the final round of the regular AFL season, Forde met Pell and Pell’s infant son at a public park in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy. During that meeting, Pell passed Forde AU$27,000 earmarked for betting, as well as color-coded notes that detailed which players had received Brownlow votes in every game Pell had officiated that season.
Profits from the 2022 round of betting exceeded the previous year’s takings, with the syndicate pulling in roughly AU$60,345 in illegal gains from bets placed directly by Forde or on his instructions.
The operation was uncovered later that year, when betting regulators flagged suspicious wagering activity during the 2022 Brownlow count. Police arrested Forde in November 2022, and he has been on public record with charges since August 2023.
Buchhorn told the court that during police interviews, Forde was fully forthcoming about his role in the scheme. He told investigators he had rationalized his actions by arguing that betting agencies had taken large sums of money from him through personal gambling in years prior.
Forde’s defense attorney, Heather Anderson, told the court her client accepts the prosecution’s summary of the offending as accurate, and has expressed deep shame and genuine remorse for his actions. Anderson described Forde’s involvement as opportunistic: he simply chose to exploit confidential information shared by a close childhood friend for personal financial gain. For the three and a half years since his police interview, Anderson explained, the knowledge of his impending prosecution has hung over Forde, and he has endured significant public humiliation from widespread media coverage of the case.
Defense counsel has argued that an appropriate sentence for Forde would be either a substantial financial penalty, or a community-based order requiring unpaid community work. The prosecution has confirmed it does not oppose this sentencing request. Magistrate Siobhan Whittle will hand down Forde’s sentence when he returns to court for a sentencing hearing on June 3.