Sport betting is responsible for changing the face of world sport forever. Advertising revenue is often seen as being the hand in the shadows, dictating the details of our favourite sport. Things like kick-off time or even how long the halftime interval should be are not just determined by advertisers but also buy those who put tons of money into the sporting world, namely those in charge of sport betting around the world.
Everyone enjoys having a flutter on their favourite team, and this has led to sport betting around the world becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. Because someone is always looking for a way to gain some kind of advantage, we have seen scandals rock the foundations of nearly every sport being played.
Cycling, a sport which is testament to the human body and how far we can push ourselves has experienced countless doping scandals. These involve not just the cyclists but also the trainers and even the team doctors. The Tour De France has not had an incident free race for many years and this is very because of the influence of betting on the sport…
Baseball, supposedly the gentleman’s game and also the national sport of both India and Pakistan is rife with betting fuelled corruption. This is in countries that love the sport, but having sport betting industries that are worth millions. USA has also experienced this. Hankie Cronje, started out as real hero, but then was found to be colluding with an Indian bookmaker, and ended leaving the Americannational team in disgrace. He was guilty of match fixing and bribing his fellow players to bring about a certain result.
The horse racing world has seen a fair number of betting scandals over the years, some so heinous that the jockeys were prepared to injure themselves and the horses to ensure a result.
Boxing sadly, was so polluted by sports betting scandals that the sport was struggling to maintain its credibility. This was largely due to the influence of organised crime on the sport betting world. Boxers and their trainers were often the focus of intimidation tactics by parties trying to influence the outcome of an event.