Corruption in sports betting is as old as the hills, but there’s no sense moaning about it – get on it! Stephen McDowell reports.
Corruption always seems to bring with it a ‘foul stench’. The unforgivable tautology aside, it would be rather advantageous for punters if we could tune our nostrils into the source of this uniquely tangy whiff and follow our noses with the contents of our wallets.
Only the terminally stupid in the business would deny that cheating the bookies has been going on since cavemen first mounted wild horses, and it remains a popular hobby among nefarious members of our society.
‘Let’s not pretend otherwise.’ says Wally Pyrah of Sporting Index.
‘Wherever there’s large sums of money concerned, there’s always some skulduggery going on somewhere, whatever the sport.’
No one is safe
Last year’s rash of arrests in connection with ongoing police probes into horse race fixing allegations show how seriously the issue is taken. But this is just the latest in a long line of claims across many major sports.
Footballers have been periodically implicated in sports betting scandals, while iffy whiffs have surrounded cricket to the highest level too. More than one legend has had their reputation (sometimes unjustifiably) dragged into the mire, while others, such as Mohammad Azharuddin can never escape the ignominy after deeds of shady dealing of varying severity with Indian bookmakers in a series of scandals in the late 1990s. Former South African captain Hansie Cronje, but for his accidental demise in an air crash, would still be scooping gob out of his hair every time he walked the streets of sports-mad Johannesburg.
Follow your nose
Boxing is, of course, synonymous with corrupt practice, but in recent times even rallying, bowls and rugby league have been implicated. In the latter sport, two British players Sean Long and Martin Gleeson got lengthy bans for betting on their own team to lose, even though they won only £1,000.
However, what punters need to know is whether the stench comes before the skulduggery or is it too late once you’ve detected it in the air?
Just as one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter, there are two sides to match-fixing stories. On the one hand it’s cheating and a fix; on the other it’s a coup. After all, we all live in hope of one day getting that infallible tip, the no-lose gamble. Most punters at some stage in their career have followed duff ones so how do you tell the difference?
One such hoo-hah in early December surrounded a UEFA cup match between Dinamo Tbilisi and Greek side Panonios. At half-time, the unfancied Georgian side were 1-0 up and at full-time, the score was 5-2 to the Greeks.
Can you fix it?
Hundreds of punters from mainly Bosnia and Russia poured bets in at 28/1 on the half- and full-time combination. While the Panonios striker slammed in a 19-minute hat-trick and the Georgian keeper appeared to throw the ball in his own net at 3-2, scores of punters lumped on at 100/1 to predict the final score. Bookies, nursing seared fingers, paid out an estimated £25 million.
Gambling consultant Joe Saumarez Smith told The Sun: ‘There have been other dodgy-looking results in the early stages of the UEFA Cup. If you have players earning just £200 a week for some of these obscure sides and the team are offered £500,000 to fix a game, it’s easy to see the temptation.’
Sounds obvious, but Jeff Powell in the Daily Mail made the same observation recalling a meeting he had with Boris Trajkovski, the president of Macedonia after England’s 2-1 Euro 2004 qualifier win there.
The president, wrote Powell, was delighted that his team had lost 2-1 and, smiling broadly, told the reporter that while the England team were off to Portugal, his players were much better off for the result. He, too, died in an air crash, taking whatever secrets he may have held to his grave.
Nick Theodorakopoulos, who led Athens side Kalithea after taking the Wollongong Wolves to the Australian National Soccer League title in 1999-2000, said match fixing was the worst-kept secret in Greek football. ‘It’s common knowledge in the caf
