Match fixing

Match fixing or game fixing in organized sports occurs when a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident will be referred to as race fixing. Games that are deliberately lost are sometimes called thrown games.

Match fixing is often motivated by agreements with gamblers. But this is not always the case - in the NHL and NBA, teams near the bottom of the standings have sometimes been accused of throwing games at the end of the season to finish with the worst record in the league - thereby gaining the first draft pick. To deter this, these leagues now use a draft lottery which does not guarantee the first pick to the team at the bottom of the standings (the NFL also conducts a draft, but does not make use of a lottery).

In the NBA (but not in the NHL), there have also been allegations of teams throwing games in order to finish in sixth rather than fifth place in the conference standings, thus enabling the team in question to evade a possible playoff match with the conference's top seed until the final round of playoffs in that conference (for more details see single-elimination tournament).

In the past, some NFL teams have been accused of throwing games in order to obtain an easier schedule the following season; this was especially true between 1977 and 1993, when a team finishing last in a five-team division would get to play five of its eight non-division matches the next season against other last-place teams.

When a team deliberately loses a game to obtain a perceived future competitive advantage rather than gamblers being involved, the team is often said to have tanked the game instead of having thrown it. Often, substitutions made by the coach designed to deliberately increase the team's chances of losing (frequently by having one or more key players sit out, often using minimal or phantom injuries as a public excuse for doing this), rather than ordering the players actually on the field to intentionally underperform, were cited as the main factor in cases where tanking has been alleged.

Match fixing does not necessarily involve deliberately losing a match. Occasionally, teams have been accused of deliberately playing to a draw where the draw ensures some mutual benefit (e.g. both teams advancing to the next stage of a competition.) There have also been incidents (especially in basketball) where players on a favored team have won the game but deliberately ensured the quoted point spread was not covered (see point shaving).

History

Since gambling pre-dates recorded history it comes as little surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout recorded history. The Ancient Olympics were almost constantly dealing with allegations of athletes accepting bribes to lose a competition and city-states which often tried to manipulate the outcome with large amounts of money. These activities went on despite the oath each athlete took to protect the integrity of the events and the severe punishment sometimes inflicted on those who were caught. Chariot racing was also dogged by race fixing throughout its history.

By the end of the 19th century gambling was illegal in most jurisdictions but that did not stop its widepread practice especially in the United States. Boxing soon became rife with fighters "taking a dive" - probably because boxing is an individual sport which makes its matches much easier to fix without getting caught. Baseball also became plagued by match fixing despite efforts by the National League to stop gambling at its games. Matters finally came to a head in 1919 when eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series (see Black Sox Scandal). The effects of the Black Sox Scandal would lead to Major League Baseball adopting draconian rules prohibiting gambling which persist to this day.

In 2000 the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie Crojne in which they learnt that Hansie accepted money to throw matches. The South African government refused to allow any of its players to face the Indian investigation unit, it opened up a can of worms. A court of inquiry was set up and Crojne admitted to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket. He also named Salim Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja (India). They too were banned from all cricket. As a kingpin, Crojne exposed the dark side of betting, however with his untimely death in 2002 most of his sources also have escaped law enforcement agencies. Two South African cricketers Herchelle Gibbs and Nikki Boje are also wanted by the Delhi police for their role in the match fixing saga. A few years before in 1998, Australian legends Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the 'weather' to bookmakers.

Match fixing and gambling today

Influenced by baseball's experiences, the NFL and NBA have followed MLB's lead and adopted a hard line against gambling on its games, especially by those directly involved in the league. The NCAA goes as far as to prohibit its athletes and coaches from gambling on any sport in which the NCAA holds a championship. Each of these organizations was strongly influenced by fears that their games could come under the influence of gamblers in the absence of these tough measures.

In Britain the authorities in both government and sport have taken a softer line on gambling. Sports betting was legalized in the 1960s and organizations such as The Football Association seem to have taken the stance that gambling on their events is inevitable - unlike the American leagues, The FA only prohibits betting on a match by those directly involved in the game in question.

The integrity of horse racing remains an ongoing concern since gambling is an integral part of this sport. Recent allegations of race fixing have centered around the recently-formed betting exchanges which unlike traditional bookmakers allow punters to lay an outcome (that is, to bet against a particular runner). Leading exchange Betfair has responded to the allegations by signing Memorandums of Understanding with the Jockey Club, The FA, the International Cricket Council, the Association of Tennis Professionals and other sporting authorities. These MOUs are evidence of the vast difference between British and American attitudes - as of 2004 it would be almost unthinkable for an American sports league to sign such an agreement with a bookmaker or betting exchange. In the summer of 2004, Betfair provided evidence of race fixing to City of London Police that led to the arrest of jockey Kieren Fallon and fifteen others on race fixing charges. As of this writing, Fallon's case remains before the courts.

It should be noted that while British football has never been rocked by match fixing allegations on the scale of the Black Sox scandal, cricket has been scandalized by gambling and match fixing in soccer has become a serious problem in parts of Continental Europe and most recently in South Africa, where in June 2004, thirty-three people (including nineteen referees, club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South African Football Association) were arrested on match-fixing charges.

The high salaries of some of today's professional athletes likely serves to insulate their leagues from match fixing. In the NCAA and in leagues where the salaries are comparatively less, match fixing remains a serious concern.