Gambling related match-fixing: a terminal threat to the integrity of sport?

• Author: Serby, Tom

1. INTRODUCTION

   'Like other forms of entertainment, sport offers a utopia where everything is simple, dramatic and exciting and euphoria is always a possibility. Sport entertains, but can also frustrate, annoy and depress. But it is this very uncertainty that gives its unpredictable joys their characteristic intensity' (1). Take away the uncertainty and you remove the raison d'etre of sport; and its appeal to spectators. Betting related match-fixing, although not a new phenomenon, is threatening to overtake doping as the greatest threat to sport's integrity and appeal. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, and one of the most powerful men in sport, issued a stark warning in 2011 that betting is as much a danger as illegal drug use, describing it as "potentially crippling" and a "cancer" with links to "mafia" organisations (2). Michel Platini, President of UEFA, has called cheating at gambling and match-fixing "the biggest threat facing the future of sport in Europe" (3). Ranking the threats to sport's integrity from doping and match-fixing is no easier than defining corruption in sport. But there is a fundamental difference between athletes taking banned substances in order to perform better and sportsmen pretending to compete but actually deliberately underperforming. There are gradations within match-fixing. Take for example the case of the 2002 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, where Rubens Barrichello, on team orders, deliberately slowed up before the finish line to allow his team mate Michael Schumacher to win; leading to the banning of team orders the following season. This practice can be defended, betting related match-fixing, or its cousin, spot fixing, can not. Spot fixing is the manipulation of individual incidents within the game, such as in cricket the occurrence of a no-ball (where the bowler oversteps the line in delivering the ball) or in football the awarding of a corner kick. Both spot fixing and match-fixing will be referred to hereafter as "fixing". This article will review the apparent rise in betting related fixing in sport, and the legal issues surrounding some of the proposals to curb the problem. It is widely acknowledged that the International Cricket Council ("the ICC") has taken a lead in matters relating to the policing of fixing (perhaps because the sport may have the biggest problem with betting related corruption) and particular focus will be given to cricket's battle against corruption which in 2011 saw the jailing of three Pakistani international cricketers and in February 2012 the first prison sentence for an English cricketer arising from corruption in domestic first class cricket.

2. THE ECONOMICS OF SPORT

   If gambling related fixing is on the rise (after all it is not a new problem, there was the infamous fixing scandal in the 1919 baseball World Series scandal involving the Black Sox and Shoeless Joe Jackson) it must be largely due to the way global sport continues to transform itself from its origins as an amateur pastime into big business. According to figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP by 2013 global sports spending will stand at a level of US$ 133 billion (4). This represents a considerable transformation in the relationship between sport and business. It was not until 1988 that the International Olympic Committee decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics, subject to approval by the individual sports' governing bodies. It was not until 1995 that the International Rugby Board endorsed rugby union as a professional game. In a relatively short time sport has changed from a pastime into a business estimated to equal 2% of the European Union's Gross Domestic Product. (5) One aspect of the increasing commercialisation of sport is the growth in betting on it. Sport betting worldwide was estimated at a [pounds sterling]65.3 billion industry in the 36TH Annual Report of the Gaming Board for Great Britain. (6) So in the space of a few years the economic context in which professional sport is played has been transformed, with some unintended consequences, as reflected in the words of Mr. Justice Cooke in his sentencing remarks in the trial in November 2011 of the Pakastani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif.: "The image and integrity of what was once a game, but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all ..." Uncontrolled commercialisation and the growth in sport betting have increased the incidences of fixing.

3. IS FIXING IN SPORT WIDESPREAD OR A MEDIA CREATION?

   Until recently Sports Governing Bodies ("SGBs") have been keen to play down the extent of fixing; after all, bad publicity is not good for business. By way of example in 2007 the in-house lawyer at the ICC wrote "Five years ago corruption threatened to tear international cricket apart. ... Cricket is now back on the right path and the sport seems largely free from serious corruption but the risk remains". (7) These words were shown to be naive in the light of the Pakistan cricket fixing scandal discussed in this article.

   No one knows for sure the extent of fixing (gambling related or otherwise) in sport. Maennig (8), Forest et al (9) and Chadwick and Gorse (10) have all compiled lists of the extent of fixing incidents related to betting in sport globally. They list 22, 26 and 33 cases respectively. In Maennig's and Forest's lists almost 50% of the cases relate to the years 2000-2010 whereas Chadwick and Gorse concentrate only on those years in their study. Whilst these statistics do not prove that European sport is widely infested with gambling related match-fixing, they do show that incidences are increasing.

   In their study into corruption in sport in the decade 2000-2010 Gorse and Chadwick separated out doping offences from gambling related fixing offences. They included all incidences of corruption evidenced either by a tribunal hearing (whether of a SGB or an arbitral body or Court) or an admission. According to their data over 90% of corruption offences related to doping offences, with less than 10% relating to gambling related fixing. This breakdown is misleading however because doping has long been accepted as a threat to sport's integrity and it is relatively easy to carry out checks on athletes and sports players to monitor illegal doping. Gorse and Chadwick's report is a useful summary of the major incidences of cheating in international sport in the last decade and they break down the data into the different sports and continents. Overall they conclude that North America and athletics and cycling carry the greatest percentage of doping offences while football, tennis and Europe are the worst offenders when it comes to gambling related fixing.

   Forest et al have created a model for predicting where and when fixing is most likely to take place, along the lines of a cost/benefit analysis. The major costs include: the chances the fix will be unsuccessful; the penalty if there is detection; feelings of guilt; loss of esteem among team mates; loss of opportunity to play if deselected. The benefits are the size of the bribe and the probability of a successful fix. Forest et al concluded that match-fixing is most likely to occur where:

1. Betting volume is high;

2. The athletes are poorly paid;

3. The fixing involves the actions of an individual rather than a complex interactive sequence of events;

4. The scrutiny on the competition is less intense, for example the match is played out at a lower league level;

5. The outcome of the match does not effect final placing in for example a tournament

6. The match-fixing does not involve losing

7. Salary level is regarded as unjust

8. There is high level of corruption generally in the society.

4. THE IMPACT OF CHANGES IN GAMBLING PRACTICES ON INTEGRITY IN SPORT

   The well publicized problems cricket has had with gambling related corruption stem mainly from the popularity of the sport in the Indian subcontinent where it is the number one sport and where betting, although illegal and unlicensed, is widespread. According to Reuters $427million was bet on the Indian Premier League in 2010. In Europe where gambling is legal the focus has been on regulating online gambling which has surged in popularity. In March 2011 the European Commission published a Green Paper (11) on on-line gambling in the Internal Market which followed a series of Presidency conclusions and a resolution of the European Parliament on integrity in on-line gambling (discussed further below). Online gambling is the fastest growing segment of the overall gambling market and much of it is unlicensed. The Commission's consultant, [H.sub.2] Gambling Capital, estimated that in 2008 the online market in the EU accounted for over six billion Euros accounting for 7.5% of the overall market, expected to double in size by 2013. The Paper states that out of 14,823 active gambling sites in Europe more than 85% operate without a licence. These...