Everything About Sports Betting Mafia - All nonsense?

There are always dark assumptions and many rumors around sports betting. The sports betting mafia should operate worldwide and be responsible today for many manipulated games and events - so far the theory. But is that true in practice? How active is the sports betting mafia and what is being done about it? We have addressed these questions and will discuss them in more detail below.

"King Football" takes over the lead role

Soccer Predictions clearly plays a major role among bookmakers and tipsters. This can be easily recognized by the portfolios in our bookmaker comparison and can also be proven by clear numbers. Alone 50 percent of the world's sports betting is good for football. Annual sales of approximately € 400 billion are recorded - and the trend is rising. Not so easy, also finds Jean-Francois Gayraud of the French domestic intelligence service. He denounces: "Within the 90 minutes of a football match, huge amounts of money are accumulating on thousands of websites worldwide. Who else could control that? ". Finally, the market keeps opening up. The betting range is becoming more diverse, the possibilities of use greater.

According to experts, however, it only became really problematic when it got into the online business because it makes it very difficult to detect suspicious developments on the market. More than 15,000 bookmakers provide their services on the Internet. This makes it easy, especially for the hobby tipper, to place the bets. In many ways, of course, opens the door to criminals and the sports betting mafia. A clear view of the relationship to other sports shows how clearly football is at the forefront of this: while at the 2008 Olympics a total of 900 million euro bets were recorded within the two weeks, it was Manchester United and the FC Barcelona within just 90 minutes more than a billion euros.

The problems are obvious. First and foremost, bookies try to use third parties to evaluate the countless quota changes and bets. Especially through the live betting, however, this process was made much more difficult. Within seconds, large amounts can now be set on specific events, making it difficult to understand how markets have changed. Overall, however, the authorities are still faced with another problem, because even the placement of enormous sums of money is no longer a problem thanks to the enormous diversity on the market.

Nevertheless, we can also take some oil out of the fire at this point, because the number of games actually manipulated by the sports betting mafia in football or other sports is vanishingly small. Nonetheless, the existence of such frauds cannot be denied.

Germany was already affected several times

In German football, there have been mainly two major manipulation affairs, with only one of them actually involving a sports betting mafia. A look into history shows that the manipulation of sporting events is not a new fad of these years. In Germany, the largest scandal of football was revealed in the 1970/91 season. Several officials, players, coaches and officials were said to have been involved in it. The aim of these manipulations was to prevent the relegation of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Arminia Bielefeld from the Bundesliga.

The affair came out at that time by tape recordings, which included several perpetrators, as they talked about bribes and manipulations. For German football, this was the first big setback in his then relatively young post-war history.

As history is known to repeat, it took only about 35 years before Germany was again faced with a tangible football scandal. This time, however, with the involvement of the sports betting mafia and with much greater potential for conflict. Dazzling figure of the manipulations was the former referee Robert Hoyzer. He is said to have manipulated several games on behalf of the Croatian sports betting mafia in favor of the client. Hoyzer himself apparently received smaller "gifts" or sums of money for this. However, the winnings of the sports betting mafia are estimated to be enormous - as well as the reputation damage to the DFB and its referees.

But that was not the thing eaten, because Hoyzer also accused numerous professionals and other referees. Over time, the investigation files grew thicker and thicker until history became the biggest scandal in German football.

Is the sport broken by the sports betting mafia?

Of course, manipulation is never beneficial for sport and the sport. Fortunately, it cannot be said that the sport is destroyed by the sports betting mafia. Although the influence is noticeable, the number of manipulated games is pleasingly low. Overall, around 400 football games have been manipulated in Europe so far. Considering that each bookmaker sometimes offers 200 games a day, the number is correspondingly low.

Mostly affected are usually only the games in the lower leagues. The top stars earn enough money with their job and are therefore not so susceptible to the manipulation. Hobbyists who kick in amateur teams and maybe even bet, however, are more likely to fall into the grid. So the bottom line is that the "threat" of the sports betting mafia for the hobby tipper at home is very low. First and foremost, the business of bookmakers is broken, because they have to pay significantly higher sums of money than possibly planned.

What is being done against the sports betting mafia?

For several years, the major sports federations FIFA, UEFA and also the IOC have teamed up with Interpol to better respond to impending manipulations. For this purpose, data, odds and quota changes are mainly analysed, but this effort alone cannot be achieved by an authority. For this reason, third companies are used, which includes, for example, the London company "Sportradar". Sportradar observes more than 40,000 football matches a year worldwide and monitors the betting markets for noticeable changes. Through this cooperation, for example, it is possible to detect suspicious betting movements at an early stage and to inform the bookmakers about them.

The reactions of the bookies are then often different. While many vendors take the affected games out of the portfolio, others only limit the maximum bets for that game. In general, some representatives of the industry go so far that amateur games are not included in the offer at all.

Conclusion: The problem is getting under control

The sports betting mafia exists. That cannot be denied in any case. However, the influence is by no means scary, because the number of manipulated games is vanishingly small. The tippers and bookmakers owe this to the work of numerous authorities and third parties who deal with football matches and their betting odds around the clock. As a normal hobby tipper so there is little reason to worry that your own ticket could be broken by manipulating the sports betting mafia. The bookmakers respond to noticeable changes usually very fast, so that the greatest damage can be averted. Nevertheless, we must continue to work so consistently so that the sports betting mafia cannot increase its influence in the future.