Do Higher Paid Sports Have Less Match Fixing
Elsewhere on the site you can read about match-fixing in football, boxing, cricket and snooker, as well as whether it is taking place more nowadays or is just policed better. The reality is that it is likely to be somewhere in the middle of those two suggestions, such is the extent to which moving betting online has allowed the monitoring of suspicious betting patterns to be improved.
When it comes to match-fixing, there is no question that it is more likely to happen more in lower leagues where players are paid less, or in sports that are less popular and the big stars are therefore likely to earn less.
When it comes to the likes of a Premier League footballer or a top golfer, they earn much more money than a player in the lower leagues or one that is struggling to make it onto the tour. As a result, they are much less likely to risk throwing their careers away in order to help a betting syndicate or a crime group.
Someone that earns less money, meanwhile, is always going to be more inclined to earn an increase on their wage, especially if they think they are going to be able to ‘get away with it’ by doing something that is seen as relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things.
Why People Fix Matches
The first thing to understand when it comes to the likes of match-fixing is why it is that someone would agree to take part in it. Generally speaking, the desire to ‘fix’ the outcome of a sporting event is based around financial compensation. If a player in League Two was approached by a betting syndicate, for example, and asked to put the ball out for a throw-in at a certain time in a match, with the promise of £20,000 being paid to them, that is enough money to make it worth their while. Similarly, a golfer who can’t make the Tour won’t earn enough to resist the offer of performing poorly on a given hole.
With that being said, financial recompense isn’t the only reason why someone might engage in match-fixing. It is not unheard of for members of organised crime groups to threaten the families and loved ones of players in order to ‘persuade’ them to do what is wanted in a sporting event to win the group money.
Whilst this can, of course, happen to famous people as much as those that are lesser known, the reality is that particularly well-off sports stars are able to hire the sort of security that would stop that from happening. The same is not true of those lower down the sporting pyramid.
Why It Isn’t Worth It For Big Stars
Regardless of the sport in question, there are rules in place to stop people from engaging in match-fixing. Those that are caught will have their career as good as ended. Whilst this is a risk that sports-people lower down the divisions might be willing to take, those at the top of their game have far too much to lose to knowingly take part in a match-fixing exercise.
In the Premier League, for example, players earn anywhere between £1 million to £7 million a year on average. In the world of golf, meanwhile, Tiger Woods has earned more than $120 million during his career.
Those at the very top level of the most popular sports can earn huge sums of money to mean that there is simply nothing to be gained from taking part in any sort of match-fixing. Why would someone earning a million a year choose to potentially lose all of that in return for tens of thousands? It doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, which is why it is very rarely the top sports people that are caught engaging with match-fixing plans.
That isn’t to say that it never happens, just that it is not a common thing because what they stand to lose is more than they might gain.
What The Bookies Tell Us About Match-Fixing
It might seem a strange thing to say, but bookmakers can give us some solid information about match-fixing. We are not talking about the actual fixing itself, but rather about which sports the bookies think are most liable to be ‘fixed’.
The more that a betting company thinks a sport is liable to be fixed, the lower the maximum payout will be for the sport in question. If a bookmaker fears that a sports could be fixed with relative ease, there is no way that they’re going to allow someone to be paid out millions of pounds on something that, for them, is a sure thing.
On the other hand, if a betting company believes that a sport is solid and is unlikely to be caught up in any sort of match-fixing scandal, they will allow punters to win large sums of money on it; albeit they will do so through gritted teeth. If you’re wondering whether a sport is likely to be liable to a bit of match-fixing, the best thing to do is to have a look at what the maximum payout offered on said sport will be from a series of bookmakers. Of course, you do need to bear in mind that the biggest companies will have more liquidity than smaller ones, so that will also make a difference.
In short, the lower a maximum payout figure is, the more doubtful bookies are that it is completely safe and secure. This isn’t a foolproof system, but it is something that you can think about when you’re weighing up whether a sport that you’re looking to bet on might have some dodgy dealings going on behind-the-scenes. Failing that, you can also take a look at how much players tend to be paid on average to see if they are likely to fall foul of match-fixers. Just because someone isn’t paid much is no more of a guarantee that they will do something dodgy than a well-paid player won’t, but it is at least a good rule of thumb.
