Impact Of Soccer Match-Fixing Scandals

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hacheman@therx.com
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Impact of soccer match-fixing scandals

Chad Millman
ESPN INSIDER
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A soccer match-fixing scandal that spreads from Europe to Asia to Africa.
An oral argument in New Jersey to determine whether sports betting should be legal in the United States.
A record haul in the state of Nevada for Super Bowl betting.
Three moments, two of them (match fixing and the Super Bowl) that have already happened, and one (the oral arguments) that will happen Feb. 14. At first glance they are separated by distance and time and varying degrees of perception. But look a little harder and the web of connection is there; potentially unfolding like a jigsaw Quentin Tarantino film from the early '90s.
Let's start with the Super Bowl. In the days leading up to the game, bookmakers around the country began predicting that it would be the most-bet NFL title game ever. As economic fortune-tellers, Nevada bookies can't be beat. When the economy is on the verge of turning they are the first to notice, as more and more money starts crossing the counter. Ed Salmons of the Las Vegas Hotel told me he could sense all through the NFL playoffs that the cash was coming, that the action felt different and livelier than the year before. And the bookies were right. The record for the Nevada handle on the Super Bowl had been a little more than $94 million, set in 2006 when the Pittsburgh Steelers played the Seattle Seahawks. But on Sunday, bettors poured more than $98 million into the state's sports books, easily a new record.
<offer>This is good news in a lot of ways to a lot of people. Nevada's coffers get a little heavier. And forget housing starts or unemployment numbers or the stock market; the fact that people are willing to fly to Vegas, pay for a hotel and part with their money in a sports book for the privilege is a sure sign that economic uncertainty is waning. (Cue the Tarantino-esque quick-cut connection!) This is why New Jersey is fighting to have the federal sports betting ban, known as the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act, overturned. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is making a much-needed money run. In defiance of federal law, he has told folks in his state he will grant sports betting licenses. And he's doing it the only way he knows how: daring anyone who gets in his way to stop him.
The NFL, the NBA, MLB, the NHL, the NCAA and now the Department of Justice (which, when PASPA was passed in 1992, wrote a position paper for Congress claiming the law was unconstitutional) are doing just that. In oral arguments in federal court in Trenton next week, the leagues' lawyers will no doubt make the claim that legalized sports betting is a legitimate threat to the integrity of their sports. In fact, in a deposition this past December, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, boss of the sport that just pulled in a record betting haul on its championship game, told opposing attorneys that he considered gambling the No. 1 threat to the integrity of his sport. Bigger than Bountygate. Bigger than steroids.
(And cut! Now go back to the scandal that opened our story. Bring it all together, Quentin!) A favorite argument of proponents of legalization is that more regulation would not just bring in much-needed revenue, but it would reduce the chances that games would be tampered with. Too much would be at stake. But, no doubt, when the leagues' lawyers make their case countering this argument on Valentine's Day, in the back of their minds will be the match-fixing scandals that Europol, the FBI of the European Union, announced on Monday.
It revealed that, during a two-year investigation, more than 425 soccer officials had fixed 680 matches worldwide, resulting in more than $10 million in profits and several million dollars in illegal payoffs. We've known this was coming. This past May in ESPN The Magazine, Brett Forrest investigated the biggest fixer in the world, Wilson Perumal, who had recently been arrested. Cops had been anonymously tipped off to Perumal's nefarious ways by associates of his old boss in the world's largest match-fixing syndicate, Dan Tan, who was angry that Perumal had gone rogue on a couple of missions. Once in jail, Perumal promised that he held "the key to Pandora's box." And that he would not be afraid to unlock it.
Well, he has. While we all think of the EPL or La Liga or Serie A when it comes to professional soccer, there are thousands of teams of varying age groups in more than 200 countries that play under the FIFA umbrella. The players make a pittance, and the refs make even less. From Asia to Africa, they fly under the radar of everyone except the most loyal local fans and the most opportunistic bettors. As Forrest pointed out in his story, these are the matches Tan and Perumal took advantage of.
This is the nuance of the debate. At the highest levels, it is difficult to fix a game, and those are the games most often considered when people talk about regulation being a safety net. In the United States, we don't offer lines on Division III college hoops or OHL hockey games. The avenue through which most people gamble, the Internet, does not provide opportunities for in-game props like "How many field goals will there be in the first half of a football game?". But those are distinct to Europe and Asia, where the number of betting websites outstrips those available to U.S. customers and the options for betting are wider and, often, more local.

During my podcast on Wednesday, Joe Brennan Jr., who runs the lobbying group IMEGA, which was instrumental in developing the lawsuit to overturn PASPA, made an interesting point: "Bettors mostly believe NFL games are on the level because of the quality of it. That is not the case when you are betting on an under-16 Albanian soccer league. In Europe and Asia there is such a passion for soccer there is too much available that is deemed professional soccer and too many opportunities for tampering. It would be as if Vegas bookmakers had to follow every world soccer league and create lines and action for that. You shouldn't be betting on semi-professional athlete teams. And it would be legit criticism if someone proposed it here in the U.S. Once you go beyond Division I, the resources do not exist to protect the integrity of the game. You cannot make markets on those games."

Brennan is right, of course. But given the appetite of Americans for sports betting (as evidenced by the ever-increasing Super Bowl handle), someone will try. As soon as it becomes legal.

(And scene)
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