Football betting is the prediction of the result of a football match from before hand
and the winner gets a lot of money which has been used for the betting. It is a sort of
gambling.
The bets are done or conducted via the bookmakers (sportsbooks or bookies). The sportsbooks accept both
party’s bets and has a profit for himself even if one side loses.
In USA, betting is illegal, except in few states. In Europe, bookmakers are
regulated but not legally banned. “The National Football League (NFL)” is totally against betting
and bettors think that it is an offence and want the game to be pure and corruption free.
There are many illegal activities regarding betting, which has hampered the true spirit of the games played. It is the biggest setback of betting illegally. Illegal betting has grown so strong and so vast that now-a-days allegation of match-fixing or sport fixing in gaming world can be heard so often. The illegal betting industry is huge estimating their profit around 230 billion Euros per year.
Some reason behind illegal betting is that in many parts of the world betting is
banned, thus it attracts more people from those countries. Others sometimes do
illegal betting due to the high ransom they are offered. Illegal betters can hide their
identities if they don’t want to show themselves. This cannot be done if legal betting
was conducted. Thus it is another advantage.
Illegal betting hampers the governments’ taxes and profits, they hamper the wages of
legal bookmakers, mostly they are banned, so they are illegal in the eyes of law. The
illegal betting can cause the biggest harm like can bribing a player or a whole team to
do the way they accomplish the desired result. And if the result is known before hand, the bookies or
syndicates can raise the odds to gain maximum profits themselves. This is known as
Match-fixing.
In match-fixing, a team plays the game as predetermined by the syndicates who offer
them a whole lot of money. They are deliberately meant to play it in a different way
which hampers the true spirit of gaming and makes them even lose a fairly easy
game. Spot-fixing is a part of match-fixing where small events are fixed from before
hand and which can be gambled upon. Spot-fixing is harder to trace.
There are many causes of match-fixing. Some are listed below:
1. Gain of a lot of money by the players or the team from the gamblers.
2. To get better teams in the play-offs. By better team it is meant as an easier team in
the play-off. If by losing a game, the opponent of the next game can be changed to
with an easier team, then the team does that by match-fixing.
3. To obtain a more favorable schedule in the next year’s season tournaments.
4. To draw a score or a fixed score by teams deliberately where mutual benefits are
concerned.
5. To gain performance of individuals in team sports.
There are many more reasons which include referees, or non-gambling match-fixing
etc.
Some Examples of Match-fixing in Football game are:
1. In 2005, September, two Brazillian football referees, “Edilson Carvalho” (associated
with FIFA’s referee staff) and “Jose Danelon” were part of spot fixing, and had accepted
money. They were permanently banned from Football.
2. “Choi-Sung Kuk” a South Korean Footballer was found guilty of match-fixing and
has been banned for lifetime by FIFA.
3. “Luciano Moggi”, former Juventus Technical Director, was involved in Italian match-fixing in
2006. He was accused of committing sports fraud. 16 persons were arrested and
found guilty.
4. Marseille, the French Football team, were involved in match-fixing in early 1990’s
and found guilty.
There are several other examples of match-fixing. Though match-fixing is highly
profitable, yet it has its own shares of risks also. Risk of getting caught, risk of losing the
bet and not being able to pay the huge sum to the bookie, also of not getting the money
they had won. There are always these risks involved, yet for money a true player or a
team can go in a wrong path at any time.
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