Football economics guru Stefan Szymanski is not alone in striking a sceptical note on the Europol investigation into what appears to be large scale fixing of football matches in the interests of criminal gangs. That is not to say that there is not a problem, although it is unfortunate that the Football Association and Uefa were not put in the picture about the investigation.
Football economics guru Stefan Szymanski is not alone in striking a sceptical note on the Europol investigation into what appears to be large scale fixing of football matches in the interests of criminal gangs. That is not to say that there is not a problem, although it is unfortunate that the Football Association and Uefa were not put in the picture about the investigation.
There has been speculation on the internet about one Premiership club, but if anything did happen, it involved the other club who have also been linked with a suspicious match elsewhere. The FA stated that it was not aware of any credible reports into suspicious Champions League matches in England.
Szymanski is write to draw attention to the problems caused by the fact that gambling is illegal in India, but the sheer scale of betting in Asia presents lucrative opportunties to organised criminals. It dwarfs the scale of betting in the UK, itself a big industry.
With each Premier League match televised to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, legal bookmakers like IBC Bet, who are licensed in the Phillipines, will turn over £30m in a single game. A big game could well double that.