Football Betting Scandal that ended up with arrests

The game of football has wide-scale popularity and is enjoyed by everybody from all around the world. It is played by people, irrespective of race or religion, from the biggest sporting events to the narrowest of lanes in the world. Football events such as the World Cup are also followed by every stratum of human society with equal vigor and excitement. Betting in sporting events is also a very common occurrence and has been taking place since time immemorial. However, with globalization, this practice has taken up an altogether new form that we investigated together with rowdie.co.uk.

The malpractices in sporting events have increased manifold since the days of yore, probably due to the high reach of such schemes followed by the involvement of a large amount of money and assets.

Betting in football matches is also a very common occurrence. However, due to such high stakes and such a vast audience, betting has taken new levels. This has led to manipulating the results of matches beforehand so that a particular outcome with a very high return could win. There are betting markets in every continent, in every country- depending upon the scale of a football match. Upon investigation, Europol once found out that the biggest amount involved with fixed matches was £121,000 which is just one of the many examples of football betting scandals. However, this sum is nothing compared to what goes on in the Asian Markets. The Asian markets are by far the largest among all the betting places in the world and witnes exchanges in billions. With rampant match-fixing, even this market is hugely affected along with the sporting event.

Specific regions are prevalent

Since the Asian market is crumbling to pieces due to all the accounts of fixed matches everywhere, the fixers are taking to other events hosted elsewhere. They are operating throughout the world in Africa, North America, Latin America, and Europe. There are between 20 to 30 of such fixers who, in a refined manner, are now known as brokers. They arrange contracts with local criminals who have the upper hand on corrupt coaches and players and operate through them. These Asian brokers also ensure that the winning bet is so placed such that there is no point of suspicion. This strategy has ensured that they can keep operating stealthily and keep manipulating the results of matches.

In Europe, the activity of such brokers has been very strategic and they are slowly moving westwards. Countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland, which are along the border areas of Europe and former Soviet Russia are the worst affections due to such scandalous fixing. In fact, the condition in these countries is so bad, that even the football fans of the nation do not see their matches with any iota of credibility. Moving on from these nations, the fixers have moved interior into countries like Greece, Turkey, and Italy. The corruption in these countries has also reached tremendous levels and has hit the sport in these nations very badly. Countries like Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria all have accounts of various fixed matches. The might of these fixers are slowly moving to the UK and is destroying all kinds of football activities at various levels. For example, Norway got the first taste of the effects of such fixers in certain third-division matches where the gameplay was very suspicious.

Time for justice

Such an incident had also taken place in France quite recently. The intensity of the incident was so tremendous, and the amount of money and assets involved was so huge that it made international headlines. Four employees from Winamax, a gambling company were arrested and a total of 15 arrests were to be made. BBC has been investigating match-fixing in sports matches when they were tipped off about a match-fixing attempt in Algerian football. The winning bet was set at 3-2 for DRB Tadjenanet so that they cannot be relegated from the league. A large number of bets involving huge sums brought the investigators to the scam behind the match. Investigation and house searches brought in assets and money totaling millions of dollars during this betting scam. It was also one of the first incidents when a betting company was directly involved in manipulating the outcome of the match. The website was penalized and the liability of the website stood at a whopping €100,000. Before this incident, it was believed that match-fixing in Algeria was an internal problem and no parties from outside were involved. It was a ploy to gain power and political favor and so on. However, this extensive match-fixing incident proved that such malpractices have reached a pinnacle and are rampant everywhere.

Though these fixers have not infiltrated into the game in the UK yet, it is not far away when the game in the entirety of Europe will be destroyed. The correct steps need to be immediately taken up by the Football Association to curb any such incursions into the game. Gambling becomes a problem for some people and proper counseling for such people is the first step to curb this match fixing-gambling problem. Hotlines should also be generated especially for people associated with the sport such that the sportsmen could anonymously tip of such proceedings. Such reforms and measures need to be implemented to ensure that the fangs of match-fixing do not dig deep into the sporting environment in the UK. And it is from this start that a new day in the world of sports could be witnessed. This is because. Match-fixing is not associated only with football but will all other kinds of competitive sports!