{"id":32936,"date":"2020-02-08T14:50:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T06:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/malaysia\/?p=32936"},"modified":"2020-02-08T14:28:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T06:28:39","slug":"why-football-matches-get-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/malaysia\/2020\/02\/08\/why-football-matches-get-fixed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Football Matches Get Fixed"},"content":{"rendered":"

An <\/i><\/b>estimated<\/i><\/b><\/a> one percent of football matches get fixed, here\u2019s why.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

There is a purity in sport that gets degraded when distasteful elements such as racism and corruption get thrown in. What should be a sanctified competition of athleticism, on-field tactics, and managerial strategy, becomes less dignified with each incident of bigotry or bribery. But while racism rears an ugly head for all to see once in a while, match-fixing is the ever-present, seedy underbelly of football that relatively few are aware of and almost no one is able to prevent. We at Football Tribe attempt to uncover the reasons for this.<\/span><\/p>\n

The primary motivation behind match-fixing, gambling, may be frowned upon but it happens a lot<\/b><\/p>\n

Gambling may be condemned in all manner of scripture, but in terms of both legal and illegal sports betting around the world, it happens to the tune of around 3 trillion US Dollars every year.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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That\u2019s a lot of slick website and customer service hotline money, or some kit sponsor money.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that\u2019s just a conservative <\/span>estimate<\/span><\/a> by Patrick Jay, a betting expert who spoke at the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015. To paraphrase Jay, who used to work at Ladbrokes, some of his peers in the industry would suggest even higher numbers. The true volume of sports bets that move around the world is understandably difficult to quantify\u2014according to Jay, the vast majority of global sports betting (around 90 percent) is unregulated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matches of interest can take place anywhere in the world, but a lot of the betting happens in Asia<\/b><\/p>\n

Around 65% of bets around the world are placed on football matches, especially lower-tier fixtures that are broadcast live during ordinary waking hours in Asian time-zones.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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A gambler placing a bet at a Hong Kong jockey. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/i>These seemingly trivial details are cited by experts like Jay to support a number of damning assertions. One of these assertions being that, while somewhat regulated in the UK and parts of western Europe, the sports betting industry still enjoys little to no enforcement in Asia. In places like China, for example, over a billion US Dollars in wagers could be placed on a single match.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The gambling continues to happen because it can<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite the weight of all that money, there isn\u2019t much regulation.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some nations don’t have laws in place to specifically address match-fixing, any charges filed against alleged fixers tend to revolve around fraud and money laundering. With around 90% of wagers being made off the books, the prevalence of criminal interests is a given. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), around 25 percent of global sports betting is currently being controlled by organised criminal groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another critical assertion by experts like Patrick Jay is that the preferred targets of match-fixers are leagues featuring a balance of characteristics such as cut-rate obscurity, loose enforcement, and nominal expectations of professionalism. Due to chronically lower wages and few high-profile commercial endorsements, players and referees in semi-professional leagues are said to be more easily bought off without drawing attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n