The absolutely strong and unbeatable Team Number One in the League (winning all their games in the season so far) is playing against Team Number Eighteen (who have lost all their games in the season so far). Number One scores an early goal in the first few minutes, as it’s supposed to be, just to “live up to the expectations”… then they drag along at 1-0, for 80-85 minutes… seemingly unable to score any more goals, or even if they get a ridiculously obvious chance, they “mess it up”. Then, during the last minutes, they let Number Eighteen score a goal… BOOM! It’s 1-1… DRAW! The most precise way to do this is in the 90th minute, when some bookies are closing their odds already.
Does this story sound familiar to you? We bet it does!
There are of course many other versions of the above scenario, but let’s stick with this one for a bit, analysing the evolution of the odds during the game. This is a perfectly simple example of “how to manipulate the markets” by making everybody believe the wrong thing.
The odds in the above game between No. 1 and No. 18 started at 1.16 – 5.75 – 11.50… then, after that early goal, they immediately changed to 1.10 – 6.30 – 13.00… then to 1.05 – 6.75 – 15.00, then to 1.01 – 7.50 – 24.00… then, out of the blue, in the last minute, the game ended 1-1! Whoever bet any amount on that “unlikely” draw, will cash out 1:7.50!
Oh, and one more important detail you should know… No. 1. had enough points to remain No. 1, in any case… so this draw did not change anything for them. Did it?
No need to mention any names here – you can give No. 1 and No. 18 a name. You have seen this before. You don’t need to be an expert to smell the rotten fish here. It’s disgusting, and puts honest punters off, because they were in fact cheated out of their pockets.
Bottom line: Match fixing is morally wrong, and it is a criminal act. In principle, match fixing is the same as stealing someone’s wallet, or burglarising someone’s house. In the end, it makes the world a worse place. While some bookmakers profit from their punters losing their bets, other bookmakers will be heavily defrauded. No need to feel sorry for the bookies, though. It’s more the punters we need to feel sorry for. It’s tough to lose your stake, even though you did you analysis correctly – except THAT one variable you couldn’t possibly know about. The one variable that multiplies everything by zero, thus rendering the end result zero, too (meaning that you lose your bet). You may have been in such a situation before – when something as unpredictable happens, as in the story above… when something that shouldn’t have happened, still happened… right?
What do we learn here? Bet responsibly, and bet only what you can afford to lose, because you never know for sure what tonight’s game really brings…
PS: The above article tells the story of a match that has been fixed, indeed, not one that you could get the results for in advance, on one of those websites promising you “fixed match results”. Regarding that – as stated in one of our previous articles “Get Fixed Match Results For Free” already – we cannot emphasize often enough that the only free cheese is the one on the mousetrap.
Do you have examples of match fixing?
Let us know in the comments below!