What Are ‘Fixed Matches’ in Sports Betting?
In sports betting, fixed matches are games where the outcome has been illegally predetermined. This happens when players, officials, or even entire teams conspire to manipulate the result for a guaranteed gambling profit.
Fixing a match is a form of cheating and is a serious crime in most countries, leading to severe consequences for those involved, including lengthy prison sentences, lifetime bans from the sport, and hefty fines.
How Match Fixing Works
The core idea of a fix is to eliminate the uncertainty of a sporting event. Corrupt individuals, often working with criminal syndicates, will bribe key participants to ensure a specific outcome occurs. This could involve:
- Manipulating the final score: For example, ensuring a favored football team loses to a heavy underdog.
- Spot-fixing: This involves manipulating smaller, specific moments within a game that don’t necessarily affect the final result. Examples include a tennis player deliberately double-faulting at a specific moment, a cricketer bowling a no-ball in a particular over, or a football player intentionally getting a yellow card.
Once the outcome is arranged, the fixers and their network will place large bets on the predetermined result with multiple bookmakers. Because the outcome is known in advance, these bets are guaranteed to win, yielding enormous profits.
The “Fixed Matches for Sale” Scam 🚨
It is crucial to understand that while match-fixing does happen, it is a secretive and highly illegal activity. You will frequently encounter scams online, especially on social media platforms, where individuals or groups claim to have information on upcoming fixed matches for sale.
These offers are universally fraudulent. Here’s how the scam operates:
- The Offer: A scammer advertises “100% guaranteed fixed match tips” for a fee.
- The Trick: They will take money from a large group of people. They then give half of the group one outcome (e.g., Team A to win) and the other half the opposite outcome (e.g., Team B to win).
- The Result: No matter what happens, half of their customers will have a “winning” tip. The scammer then pockets the money from the losing group and targets the “winners” for a much more expensive tip for the next game, presenting the first win as proof of their legitimacy.
Remember, anyone with genuine knowledge of a fixed match would not risk exposure by selling the information online for a small fee. They would exploit it themselves for a much larger, quieter profit.