Soccer match-fixing scandal

Someone bets on MLS games?

That is a real cry for help.

 

Never bet on matches in Moldova or Macedonia.

 

Yet people were shocked that Qatar and Russia may have "fixed" their World Cup-winning bids...

 

It's amazing what people bet on. A couple years ago, there was a scandal in cricket after several players for Pakistan were found to have conspired to rig spot bets on no-balls. Essentially, it would be the equivalent of betting on something like a pitcher going to a 2-0 count on the seventh batter in a game. Something utterly pedestrian and extremely easy to fix.

The Champions League game in England found to have been rigged was Liverpool-Debrecen, a group stage game. Debrecen were from Romania, I think, and would have been heavy underdogs, so any attempted fix would have likely surrounded the final score, or a particular event within the game. The report I've seen is that they suspended a player for failing to report having been approached by a fixer. That may be the extent of it.

There's nothing quite so jarring when you're accustomed to the American approach to gambling as the ads you see at halftime of games here, which generate live odds on the game you're watching, generally something like "Rooney to score next" or "Man United to win 4-1" when they're up 2-0. You also get betting windows inside stadiums.

 

I was just taking a shot at MLS.

Believe me, I realized how pervasive gambling is when I first saw that the Nevada books were setting lines on NFL preseason games. Now that's ill.

 

In Asia any league in the world is up for wager.

 

I'd take the over when my U50 team plays the guys sponsored by the local supermercado chain.