Red-flagging the leagues: the U.S. Sports most in danger from match-fixing

A Scoping Review of the Causes and Consequences of Fraud in Sport

“…According to the literature, the individuals that initiate and perform the fixing of (parts of) a sport contest (e.g., athletes, referees, coaches, and clubs) are mainly looking for financial benefits (Agur, 2015; Aquilina, 2018; Bricknell, 2015; Forrest, 2012; Manoli et al, 2019; Peurala, 2013). In the case of athletes (and referees), this might be especially motivated by low or unpaid salaries (see for instance: Banks, 2017; Campman, 2019; Hill, 2014; Serby, 2015; Spapens & Olfers, 2015), and the relative disparity between their salary and the high liquidities involved in the betting sector (Hill et al, 2020). The end of athletes’ sport career nearing (Hill, 2015; Lastra et al, 2018), and gambling behavior (Numerato, 2016) or gambling addiction (Soldani, 2015) were also mentioned as financial factors influencing athletes to become likely offenders of betting-related competition manipulation.…”

“…In fact, sport suffers from a lack of regulation and supervision, which is partly sustained by its autonomy (Mcnamee, 2013), and by the betting prohibition leading to a deregulation of the betting sector in some countries (Forrest, 2012, 2013; Hill, 2010). Additionally, a climate of tolerance reigns in some countries, such as Italy (Di Ronco & Lavorgna, 2015), and in international sport federations (Hill et al, 2020), where individuals usually expected to be the face of the fight against fraud, such as politicians and board members, implicitly tolerate it. This seems to be the case in South Korea, where sport institutions have been reported to focus primarily on their social acceptance in the eyes of the public instead of on managerial efficiency against the threats of competition manipulation (Tak, 2018).…”