The third tweet about how ‘clean’ sports are will look at match fixing. Horse Racing deserves its own tweet on the subject, which we will do at a later date. The main sports I think of when it comes to match fixing are Football, Tennis, Cricket, Snooker, Darts and the US Sports.
As a general rule the number of games where anything is untoward is miniscule particularly at the higher levels. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen because it does. I think back to some of the stories over the years involving Football and Match Fixing.
Nearly all of them involved Serie A/B/C matches towards the end of the season or those in Eastern Europe/Asia. As a general rule football is a very difficult sport to fix from a players perspective given you don’t have complete control over what is happening. It needs multiple players in on it.
It’s one problem with bookmakers now offering so many leagues and matches. It just increases the scope of opportunities for match fixing to take place. It does feel like your Betradars of the world do a decent job tracking potentially corrupt matches though.
Cricket is one sport that has been plagued by match fixing over the years and its no huge surprise given how much more influence over a game players have. It really came to prominence with Cronje in 2000 and hasn’t honestly gone away since. A lot of decent players over the years have been involved. Only recently there were players banned from UAE for match fixing ICC qualifiers. So many dodgy things have been happening in T20 competitions in Pakistan and South Africa. Not just the smaller events but the IPL has had proven cases of match fixing. I would also say that you cant watch the likes of Gayle and Dhoni in some of these matches/tournaments and not be really suspicious about what you are watching. Intent or lack off often a pretty good indicator and been the case on multiple occasions over the years.
It is very difficult to prove though and I think one of the problems with match fixing is that the authorities are incentivised to not look too hard given the damage it does to a sports reputation. This applies to athletics with regards to PEDs etc.
It tends to be much easier to fix those sports that are played one on one against an opponent. That way the player has complete control over what is happening. Tennis being a prime example. It also had one of the biggest cases we have seen. Davydenko vs Arguello in 2007. It was interesting as I was working close to the Tennis team when it happened at Betfair. I saw the bets that had been placed on the match and they were utterly ridiculous. As much as anything it was the prices taken at various stages that made zero sense relative to the match.
Betfair ended up voiding the bets and I think it was the right decision. The match does highlight a huge issue though. The two players were cleared of any wrongdoing, which highlights the difficulty of getting a positive conviction. The evidence couldn’t have been stronger.
Other sports which are prime for match fixing and where I would be super careful are Snooker and Darts. At least Darts has a lot more money in it now than 10/12 years ago. That plays a big part in reducing the likelihood of players being tempted.
US Sports are a bit strange as it felt like some high profile instances in sports like MLB (Chicago White Sox in the World Series in 1919) or College Basketball (Boston College pt shaving scandal in 1978) were used as an excuse for betting not being allowed in the United States.
That corruption would suddenly be rife if betting was allowed again (ignoring the fact offshore books exist..) What we see is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the sporting authorities have with bookmakers and companies like Betradar do a good job at picking some shady stuff up.
If nothing else the implied threat of it being monitored will give people pause for thought. The MOU are designed to given a sport/league certain levels of integrity. In reality match fixing is very difficult to stop particularly with it so tough to convict and prove guilt.
One of the great things we have as punters is the opportunity to bet on whatever we like. If you are worried about match fixing then don’t bet on the leagues and markets where it is most likely to happen. If you do decide to take a chance you cannot complain if it goes wrong.
Take ownership for the decisions you make. If a price looks significantly out of line, it should ring alarm bells, as much as presenting a huge opportunity. Tread very carefully and be aware this stuff does happen and the threat is very real.
ProPunting 