Which Factors Favor Betting Related Cheating in Sports? Some Insights from Political Economy
In recent years, cheating scandals connected with betting activity have shown to be a major concern for professional sports. From an economic point of view, such scandals threaten the integrity of sport and put the whole commercialization of this good (re
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Abstract In recent years, cheating scandals connected with betting activity have shown to be a major concern for professional sports. From an economic point of view, such scandals threaten the integrity of sport and put the whole commercialization of this good (regarding e.g. sponsoring, broadcasting) in danger. This chapter the incentives for cheating connected to traditional and new bet types in the sports betting sector and how they might affect the behaviur of sportsmen, coaches, and officials. We develop a simple theoretical model and derive from it some political implications which we recommend, among others, for the ongoing reform of the German sports betting market. Our recommendations should contribute to an effective prevention of scandals like those unveiled in European football in the last years.
Introduction Since their early days, professional sports have been accompanied by cheating scandals connected with betting activity. During the last years, a rising number of such scandals affected even sports traditionally considered as “noble”, like tennis or sumo. Especially the innovations in the field of information technologies, which led to the development of live bets and other types of online gambling, and the increasing commercialization of sport are being made responsible for this. From an
L. Rebeggiani (*) International Research Institute for Gambling and Gaming, Business Campus Rhein-Sieg GmbH Grantham-Allee 2-8, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] F. Rebeggiani Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bremen, Wiener Straße/Ecke Celsius Straße, 28359 Bremen, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
M.R. Haberfeld and D. Sheehan (eds.), Match-Fixing in International Sports: Existing Processes, Law Enforcement, and Prevention Strategies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02582-7_9, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
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economic point of view, these scandals threaten the integrity of sport which represents the background of each sort of commercialization of the respective sport event (besides betting, in particular this relates to sponsoring, merchandising, and selling broadcasting rights). Therefore, they constitute a major risk that gambling regulation policy should target instead of focusing on addiction issues only, as has traditionally been the case in Germany and other countries. This chapter analyzes the incentives for cheating related to traditional and new betting types in the sports betting sector and how they affect the behavior of sportsmen, coaches, and officials. First, we adapt a simple theoretical model developed by Forrest and Simmons (2003) and derive from it a classification system for different types of sports. The various kinds of bets as well as their placing modalities are then being analyzed and classified accordingly. The model yields five general results displaying the linkages between detection probability, expected gains from successful cheating, pr
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