Match-Fixing In Europe

Barcelona-Chelsea. No doubt about that one.

 

The Lyon-Zagreb game was dodgy as *, along with the 2 ajax goals disallowed I think everyone in Europe knew something was going on, Lyon may have had nothing to do with it either but i'm sure someone in Croatia made a ton of money off those games, and I am sure some if it filtered down to the dinamo players.

 

They used to be quite easy to spot around 2006-2007 when I started using Betfair . You could just follow the money and were nearly always proved right.

On Betfair you can see how much money has been matched on each game and on which teams at what price.

An example would be a Czech 2nd division coupon on a Saturday might have 5 games and a quick look would show you that

£5,891 had been matched on match A
£3,189 on match B
£4,218 on match C
£1,909,290 on match D
£1,290 on Match E.

Now when you look at match D and realise it is not the best team in the country against the worst but 2 mid table teams or even more likely a team that needs a win to stay up near the end of the season you realise something is wrong especially when of that 1.9m all but £26 of it is on the home team. Also their price had crashed from 2.4 to 1.36.

I would say this went on for about 18 months before it changed and became less obvious.

It became more sophisticated as on a betting exchange for every backer there is a layer they started laying the other team so the money appeared against them. Also people cottoned onto what was happening and so many people started looking for things they were finding fixs that weren’t there causing the prices to crash on games that were perfectly clean. The funny thing was now was people would go on the forums complaining the “fix’s” hadn’t come in.

I don’t think Betfair is used as much now as they have started taking it a lot more seriously. Some of these major Asian bookies now have folk betting on fictional games. They will take bets and set up score sites that are updated with fictional scorers that suit how much money they have taken on each team.

 

Scotland vs Italy or Scotland vs Czech Republic anyone?

 

Doubht it..
Il tell ya one tho, Germany v Sweden few months ago, Germany 4-0 up with 30mins left then Sweden draw 4-4 and if i remember a German missed a open goal when it was 4-3...

 

I would be very surprised if that game was fixed.

Firstly I think it highly unlikely ( though not impossible) that a German International would throw a game even a friendly.

Secondly did the Germans not go 4 up ? If you are trying to fix a game you don’t race into a 4 goal lead. ( Well apart from in the Great Escape.)

 

Yea unlilkey but you never know, if you were looking at it odds where like 1000-1 for a draw when they were 4-0 up so you never know...
edit: also it was a qualifing game..

 

Lustig scored so it could be a fix. :smiley-laughing002:

 

Liverpool 1-0 Debrecen hardly sounds a case to me considering it was the first game in the group that year.

 

According to that Danish article ( on p3 of this thread.) it involved the Hungarian goalkeeper being offered money to make sure the game finished with over 2.5 goals. So it is not alleged Liverpool were involved although reading that article perhaps Gerrard got wind of it and deliberatley thwarted it. In which case you have to commend his impeccable honesty.
:smiley-laughing002:

 

Good point always thought it was suspicious how he chopped his hair and adopted the Adolf moutasche as well. Perhaps this was some sort of signal.

 

As far as the Debrecen games, from my understanding is that the results weren`t fixed but the goalkeeper was approached to fix the match but never reported the approach hence the ban he received.

 

It's a regular occurrence in Eastern European leagues and smaller leagues all over the world, it just isn't talked about since it's not high-profile competition like CL or EL.

And I doubt such a big game like Chelsea - Barca was rigged. They were robbed, sure, but I don't think anyone would be mad enough to pull it in CL semi final.

 

This is really quite depressing. I mean I knew it went on - I remember when I used to do sports betting for a living, you would hear things every so often - but the sheer scale of this enquiry is just staggering. Maybe I am a bit naive.

Yes, agreed - that game is simply too high-profile to be a likely contender. The trick will be getting a game big enough that asian bookies will be willing to let them put down a seven-figure amount on it, but not so big that it brings down a huge amount of publicity and scrutiny. I'd be looking at things like Europa league group games, especially the last round, when the qualifiers were already decided. Chelsea-Barca was a huge, huge match - from a fixer's pov, that would risk your whole operation unnecessarily.

 

Match-fixers don't go for the big games - too much risk. They'd rather do a bunch of small ones, and not even for throwing the game, more like the Debrecen case where it's just influencing the spread. It's all about statistics and manipulating the spread rather than making a whole bunch of money off one game.

 

Don't think much can be done about it. Don't think you can place too much blame on the players involved either. Players would most definitely feel under threat if they don't agree to the match fixing.

 

A couple of years back, Italian League games looked very dodgy, some Serie A and B games. I remember a few times seeing draws as being the odds on favourite like 8/13 and sometimes 0-0 would be as little as 3/1 etc when normaly, infact always draws range from 7/4 and up and 0-0s usually 8/1+

Clearly the bookies were on to something with those games, it was almost every week There were games like that and they mostly were 0-0 draws.

 

And it happens a lot in lower divisions where players are more susceptible to being convinced by the money.

 

Italys unreal for it, i remember seeing something about in the 90's when Channel 4 had Italian football, i think Juventus had to win to win the league and whoever they where playing went 1-0 up, and the commentator said 'oops that wasnt supose to happen' laughing and Juventus went on to win the game.
Think it was common knowledge for everyone in football what was going on..

 

I think there would be a balance to be struck.

One of the largest sources of risk would be the individuals that you paid off, so there would always be a motivation to minimise the number of guys you nobbled - which in turn would mean maximising the amount you were betting on any one game. If you bet big on events that are too small, bookies will scale your stake right back, because (1) they are not taking enough money on the event to give them a cushion, and (2) the guys that set their lines will be experts on CL, EPL, Bundesliga etc, and not so hot on Estonian Div 3 etc - they will just assume you have an inside information source, and proceed on that basis.

Spreads, as you say, would be ideal - especially in a team sport, where it becomes very hard to influence the outcome with precision...