Several bookmakers have suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon following a stream of bets for reigning premiers Melbourne Storm to finish last.
In 2002, Canterbury - who were on top of the ladder at the time - finished last after having 37 competition points stripped by the NRL over salary cap breaches.
The club last month opened its books to salary cap auditor Ian Shubert after it emerged the NRL was concerned with several issues regarding player payments, including a third-party television deal involving skipper Cameron Smith.
And it was believed Storm officials were in Sydney on Thursday to hear the findings of the probe.
Sportingbet Australia spokesman Bill Richmond said "We took three bets to win $A10,000 and another to win $A8000 for the Storm to win the wooden spoon all within 10 minutes of each other this morning,".
Another bookmaker - sportsbet.com.au - also suspended betting on the wooden spoon and on teams to miss the top eight and spokesman Haydn Lane said "Before betting was suspended we took more than 30 bets this morning on NRL teams to miss the Final 8. Every single one of those bets was on the Melbourne Storm at $A7".
TABSportsbet spokesman Glenn Munsie said he didn't think much of the initial $A200 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."
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