Football and the betting industry.

[Albert Kidd 86’]

My “other” sport is Baseball.

There is a big betting scandal going on in one of the biggest teams, not match fixing, but it got me looking at sport in general and I found an NBA minor star just got banned for life for various forms of match fixing.

I then started thinking about Scottish football in particular with its closed shop hierarchy and well, lets face it some frankly totally ridiculous referee/var decisions. Are these incompetence or maybe there could be something more sinister going on?

there have been incidents over the years in which players were found to maybe kick the ball out of play on a certain minute that later proved to be a set up for bets.

the Americans are blaming the huge amount of “in match” live betting odds that are flashed up constantly on mobiles and tv during every game and every pitch in baseball etc as creating a pressure on viewers to start betting where they never did before, which could lead to possible addiction and all that entails.

Sky is always pushing bets before games etc.

is it beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere someone in football is pushing buttons behind the scenes for predicted punts?

Should betting firms even be allowed to sponsor sport? Are they a wolf in sheep's clothing? How much power do they have behind the scenes, has any journalist looked into any of this recently?

anyway, just throwing this out there during our “week off” Hibs.

[matty_f]

Scottish football isn't immune to it.

[Pretty Boy]

I'd be stunned if there wasn't some degree of corruption in just about every league in the world. It doesn't have to be full on match fixing, little things like putting the ball out for a throw in, as you have mentioned, have the potential to be lucrative.

The link between football and gambling is troubling. The University of London had a study a few years back that showed someone watching Match of the Day on a Saturday would be exposed to gambling advertising for an average of between 71 and 90% of the screen time of the show. One Sky football double bill broadcast featured over 400 different exposures to gambling across the two games and advert breaks.

Of course some will argue it's all money for the clubs and such social responsibility isn't for football as a whole or individual clubs to worry about but it's a huge issue. There's a reason we have moved on from tobacco advertising and alcohol advertising has been restricted. Gambling should be next.

I say that as someone who likes a bet. I like a drink and used to smoke as well but wouldn't argue that kids should still be able to buy sweetie fags in a Marlborough box or that young Hibs fans should be running about with Bevvy across their chest. Gambling advertising and it's close relationship with football needs to be looked at and reformed.

[ScottB]

Ultimately, advertising works, as much as an individual person might like to insist it doesn’t work on them, all these companies aren’t spending the vast sums involved for the sake of it.

Particularly for football, as betting on things like throw ins, bookings etc has taken it down to the individual level, there’s no way there’s not crooked stuff going on.

Breaking the sports link with betting advertising would help, and potentially restricting what things with a game can be bet on, if fixing becomes a concern, is probably worth doing too.

[The_Exile]

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I'd be stunned if there wasn't some degree of corruption in just about every league in the world. It doesn't have to be full on match fixing, little things like putting the ball out for a throw in, as you have mentioned, have the potential to be lucrative.

The link between football and gambling is troubling. The University of London had a study a few years back that showed someone watching Match of the Day on a Saturday would be exposed to gambling advertising for an average of between 71 and 90% of the screen time of the show. One Sky football double bill broadcast featured over 400 different exposures to gambling across the two games and advert breaks.

Of course some will argue it's all money for the clubs and such social responsibility isn't for football as a whole or individual clubs to worry about but it's a huge issue. There's a reason we have moved on from tobacco advertising and alcohol advertising has been restricted. Gambling should be next.

I say that as someone who likes a bet. I like a drink and used to smoke as well but wouldn't argue that kids should still be able to buy sweetie fags in a Marlborough box or that young Hibs fans should be running about with Bevvy across their chest. Gambling advertising and it's close relationship with football needs to be looked at and reformed.

There was also a Bristol Uni study about the very same subject matter for the season opening weekend this season, but the focus was on Sky. The figures are, quite frankly, disgusting. Gambling is probably the most destructive addiction in society, topping that of booze and drugs IMO.

Edit: Full study can be found here with the main figures below: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-libr...port2023-2.pdf

"The study’s most compelling revelation is the overwhelming and inescapable nature of gambling messaging during the Premier League weekend. Across all media channels examined, we identified a staggering total of 10,999 gambling messages. This translates to an average of 2,750 messages per day or 115 messages every hour. Match broadcasts accounted for the majority, totalling 6,966 messages (63%), followed by Sky Sports News with 2,014 messages (18%), social media with 1,902 messages (17%), and TalkSport Radio with 117 messages (2%). Social media gambling ads during the weekend amounted over 30m impressions – highlighting its reach and importance."

[ozwoody]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-...port/102470654

If you have a VPN this is a good watch.
$20 billion per year is waged by Aussies and you can even bet on amateur games .

The biggest kicker is how much the sporting codes get in % per bet to be a " partner" and that's a part that's never talked about.

[Albert Kidd 86’]

It would make a great piece of investigatory journalism if any of the journalists nowadays could lift their heads from twitter/X/insta/tiktok and take a look around. Probably too much to ask of the headline chasers that call themselves journalists nowadays.

there is something inherently wrong in the football world, when we end up with betting companies sponsoring the sport(ie TEAMS), they offer bets on, and being allowed to offer constant live odds for every facet of the game, not just the result.

It is difficult to put into words, but the possibilities for corruption are endless, and where mere humans are involved you can bet things are tending to corruption.

My guess is that as usual it will take a major scandal to bring it to the publics attention, at which point the journos will jump in and by then it will also be too late.

[number9dream]

Spot-betting is crazy and so open to cheating, especially at the lower levels where players don't earn much.
The timing of corners, yellow cards etc may not have a huge impact on the outcome of a match but it is perverting the natural flow of the game and introducing players to the criminal gangs who profit most, which could lead to yet darker outcomes in that murky world.
Of course, the betting industry doesn't make much fuss since they are raking it in, even with the odd fix here and there.

[One Day Soon]

I must admit I do pretty well from in-play betting on football and snooker, however I only ever bet games I'm actually watching. That's because with football in particular I think with in-play it is much harder for the algorithms to read the ebb and flow of a game relative to the odds they offer. I rarely see things that make me think 'that was incredibly odd, why did that happen?' although you look at the Rangers player belly flopping onto the ball in that last game and struggle to sensibly explain it (in that instance I think he just made literally one in a million arse of it rather than anything sinister).

I never bet any other sport because I don't now enough about others to have any sensible chance of winning. Very occasionally I'll bet before a match starts too but I tend to regard that kind of betting as being much more stacked in favour of the bookie.

I'd certainly ban on strip and in ground gambling advertising. Everything else I'm not so sure about for a whole number of reasons. I'd certainly also look at taxing their profits much more heavily.

[Green_one]

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Scottish football isn't immune to it.

I have always hated the sports link to gambling. Aggravated by it basically being another tax on those less well off. The whole ‘bet responsibly’ message would never be allowed with another addiction

The companies make it worse by creating narrow bets based on features of a game. For example you can bet in cricket on wide balls, which is frankly childs play for a player to deliver to order.

I suspect the corruption in more down to individual players or small groups than actually impacting scores. Of course criminal gangs will have some involvement. Football needs to stop this link asap

[Pretty Boy]

https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/EP...g-scam/1078778

This story from 1999 shows how deep some of the scams go, this one was orchestrated by the bookies involved to create a situation whereby they could stop favourites winning and avoid paying out or refunding bets on them.

It's mental to think something like that went on in a league that was at the time probably the 2nd or 3rd biggest in Europe.