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Originally Posted by Stampede2TheCup
I still disagree.
In the light or not, sports betting has exploded in size and brought with it new vulnerabilities. It’s brought vastly more money and and opportunity for officials to be tempted into fraud without even being involved with any underground elements like the old days. The vast amount of bets available, especially prop bets, spread the opportunities far far beyond shavings points.
Better technology and more scrutiny of officials may work for some other sports where replays can clearly show if an official is right or wrong for most decisions. That’s just isn’t the case for hockey where penalties and calls on close goals/non-goals are very subjective and inconsistent. It also doesn’t seem like scrutiny on NHL refs doesn’t stop some from having particular patterns in the NHL.
It all looks like a recipe for opportunity to me.
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This is a good point, that combination of very arbitrary decisions with increased sports betting is dangerously explosive. Hockey already struggles with credibility issues when it comes to refereeing in a way most other team sports don't. This could easily become another contributing factor, as it's a lot easier to bend your morals for money if you're already not well respected.