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Match Fixing In Soccer – More Common Than You Thought

With money playing such a huge role in all professional sports, then it's easy to see why match-fixing is so prevalent today. Thanks to the internet, bets can be placed from anywhere, even on games happening in different time zones. With betting syndicates having the potential to earn millions of euros, it's just a short step to ensure that the result goes the way of your wager. Both players and officials can be swayed by an envelope of cash to ensure that everyone involved makes a nice profit.

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Match Fixing In Soccer

Sometimes whilst perusing the sports news we will come across stories of corruption, bribery and match-fixing. This seems to be particularly prevalent in the game of cricket. But the online sports aggregator Sportradar has recently said that the game of soccer has the highest risk of match-fixing. Especially when compared to other sports around the globe. In fact, there were more than 500 suspicious games in 2021. Professional soccer is the sport where match-fixing appears to be thriving, with everyone hoping to win the football jackpot.

Over 1,100 Suspicious Sports Matches Since 2021

The research done by Sportradar looked at 12 different sports taking place in over 70 countries. They make use of a monitoring tool called the Universal Fraud Detection System (UFGS). By analysing the algorithms and stats, they were able to detect over 1,100 suspicious soccer matches since the beginning of last year. Overall, a total of 655 of those matches were in the first nine months of 2021.

After having looked at all professional sports, they found that soccer accounted for more than 76% of all the suspicious activity they noticed. That meant that more than 500 potential match-fixing cases were detected in 2021. They also discovered that around 40% of these fixes were in the lower league levels, mostly third-tier leagues and below. We suggest that if you’re going to be betting on soccer, then it’s better to find a reputable online bookie. That’s why we always head over to 22Bet Sportsbook for our football betting. They have a huge selection of soccer matches, plus a “live-play” feature where you can watch the match whilst making your bets at the same time.

An Ever-Evolving Problem

The Integrity Services manager and director at Sportradar, Andreas Krannich, described match-fixing as an “evolving” issue. “Those behind it are diversifying their approach. Both in the sports and competitions they target, and the way they make approaches to athletes,” Krannich explained. What’s interesting is that with the rapid changes in internet gaming there have been many fixed matches within the esports gaming industry. So far in 2021, Sportradar has noted over 70 suspicious esports matches which happened within 5 different video games.

Esports has its own gaming commission called the Esports Integrity Commission. Presently they are investigating match-fixing within esports. The aim is to stamp out this illicit behaviour. In fact, just this past August, the Esports Integrity Commission made an announcement in which it was said that it had sanctioned 3 professional Counter-Strike Global Offensive players for match-fixing. If you’re good at a game, and with such a high level of competition, then we think it’s only understandable that you might be looking for every means to increase your jackpot winning chances. For example, to help you win, you’ll find great betting odds at 22Bet Sportsbook, along with a great welcome bonus for new players of 122% up to €100!

If we take a look around the world, we can see that the Sports Integrity Unit has found the highest level of suspicious activity takes place in Europe. It included over 380 matches. Next, we have Latin America in second place with 150 matches. The Asian Pacific region has seen a total of 74. In North America, there were only 9 suspicious cases detected. Of all the sports looked into where suspicious match-fixing took place, 37 of those occurred in tennis, 19 in basketball and just 9 in ice hockey.

More High-Profile Match Fixing

With many professional sports worth so much money, both to the players and with the amounts wagered on them, it’s no surprise that Sportradar has found that match-fixing is a massive global issue. Just this year alone we have seen some big stories make the news. For example, the Argentine tennis player Franco Feitt. He received a lifetime ban along with a $25,000 fine for fixing matches between 2014 to 2018. Then in Stockholm, the National Operations Department arrested 5 people. They too were taking part in a match-fixing operation during gaming activities. Staying in Sweden, the Football Association banned four soccer players this year. Once again, these men had violated the anti-match fixing regulations, hoping to win the jackpot online. Rather hilariously, one player even bet on himself a total of $34,400 that he would receive a yellow card during a game. Which he promptly did!

Match Fixers Pay Out Hundreds Of Thousands In Euros

During a blog podcast that took place in September, an anonymous professional Dutch tennis player revealed a huge match-fixing ring. He said it was worth thousands of Euros to each member. He explained that there were at least 10 international players from France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands who would receive money to lose certain games or sets. The player himself refused to name those involved and even kept his own identity hidden.

Crossing over the Atlantic to the US, the NHL recently cleared the San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane of match-fixing. Apparently, his soon-to-be ex-wife, Anna, spilt the beans. She claimed that he used to bet on his own games. He’d also throw matches in order to win greater profits. Which sounds like some pretty good jackpot winning strategies. Unfortunately for him, she made the claims on social media and there’s nothing worse than a woman scorned.