[chalk46]

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this question derives from some recent videos I've seen where people have made certain claims about fixed wagering, but by no means have I or would I ever be apart of such acts. I'm sure some of us have had a friend or family member that has competed at a high enough level where there was wagering to happen on the game. I guess what I am asking is have you ever personally known for sure that a game was fixed? If you had the connections and needed quick cash, would you? .I admit that I often watch games and see crap that automatically makes me think there was shaving going on. What's everyones take on the matter. Btw, I'm bored and have a couple of hours to kill before the family arrives.

[Booya711]

I have always been told that "if there is a line on a game, someone has fixed it"

College players have been know to point shave for $$$$, but in pro sports its all about the referees....the players make enough to not have to point shave...IMO

[SportsMushroom]

there is no doubt that some games are fixed, but probably a very small percentage, less than 0.1%

the thing is, people lose bets and automatically blame it on the fix, because they cant dare think that they just made a bad bet

when two professional teams play, its two professional teams playing, either team has a good chance of winning, or else they would not play the game. the favorite and the spread are just an indication, or better yet an opinion. just because a team has a 14 point handicap does not mean they are guaranteed to lose, if that were the case the books would not offer odds on it, they are not in the business of giving you money


it seems normal to me that people lose their shirts gambling, they have no concept of what goes on in sports, they think that players are robots, they think that a basketball player has to make every shot, and every qb has to make every throw a good one. no they are human, they will brick shots, they will throw pick sixes, they will make mistakes, some days more than others. gamblers see this human aspect of sports as a 'fix' as they cant understand things like law of averages, fatigue, human error etc



the only stories i have about fixing involves horce racing, i used to have a friend that owned a race horse, whenever his horse would race his trainer would always inform him of the order the first 4 horses would come in, and he always used to cash big. also know another guy, he used to hang around the racecourse all day, talk to all jockeys and trainers, take them out to dinner give them gifts etc, so that they would let him in on all the fixes. in the end he got tired cause all the money he was making off the bets he was wasting on pampering these guys so that they would let him in on the fix


horses are easier to fix, they are cheap, noone requires a payoff, all you need is some drugs for your horse, alternatively, what happens most of the time is that trainers/jockeys are in agreement about the order the horses will finish in and they all cash in

[chalk46]

It's not about performance that raises question to me. It's decisions and noticeable lack of effort in certain situations. Interesting about horse races though. I enjoy it from time to time, mainly because of where I'm from and the easy accessibility. Never could I log the time and energy to become a horse capper though. I've never really researched it, but has there been big time racing fix scandals?

[SportsMushroom]

It's not about performance that raises question to me. It's decisions and noticeable lack of effort in certain situations. Interesting about horse races though. I enjoy it from time to time, mainly because of where I'm from and the easy accessibility. Never could I log the time and energy to become a horse capper though. I've never really researched it, but has there been big time racing fix scandals?

pretty sure there have been some horse racing fix scandals but probably not that big cause i dont remember details

the thing with horse raising is, its hard to catch someone, when they use drugs, many times they are undetectable or they dont even check, if the fix is between trainers and jockeys, it becomes very hard or even impossible to prove. also governing bodies dont have incentives to check, they dont pay winners out of their pockets, the wagered money is pooled and they get their cut no matter what. and obviously, unlike sports there are no international bodies, its just local bodies with not much power i guess

take soccer for example, you have fifa and uefa, huge international governing bodies that have enormous power and dont want match fixing to tarnish their product so they go to great lengths to combat it. they have agreements with bookmakers to report suspicious betting activity for example. where i am from, every month uefa sends an envelope which contains matches involving local teams and suspicious betting patterns and there is a police investigation



about the decisions and lack of effort you mentioned, bad decisions will always be made in high pressure moments in sports, thats part of human nature and the difference between winers and losers, choke or clutch. as for the lack of effort, you have to remember that the people on the field are multimillionaires, they do not have much incentive to put in the extra effort. i have noticed this my whole life with athletes, when they are young and broke they are hungry for money and success, once they have it they lose their edge, they become fat cats. that is not 100% the case but it happens a lot, once you give a guy money and women why would he even try any more?

[Madison]

Insider trading in the biggest market in the world?? Go from there and ... you're speaking of a sporting event!!