Cricket players part of possible betting scam - could this happen in the NHL?

[HPLovecraft]

Pakistani cricket team caught up in betting scam during international match with England.

This is something that I am sure every sports fan has thought of once or twice in their lifetime while watching whatever game is their particular fancy. Is it rigged? And if it isn't, could just one or two players try and influence the game in a particular way to make the game more predictable for betters?

To me, this is a type of blasphemy I can't even begin to understand. Why devote your entire life to being the very best at something, and then lose on purpose, just to make a few million more than you already have? As someone that played sports growing up, and is still passionate about them, I just cannot fathom that level of personal corruption. It bothers me in a way I can't begin to explain.

It's not as if these guys are extremely poor, and need money to just survive. Professional Pakistani cricketers are the equivalent of NHL hockey players in their respective country for fame, if not for pure salary.

Does the idea of high-level athletes rigging games for money bother anyone else? No matter how ill-guided the MLB's recent steroid abuses may have been, they still did it with the drive of being the very best at what they do. Their competitive spirit was TOO much. The idea of losing on purpose, though -- that's just perverse! The essence of greed.

The story:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/08/29/...ex.html?hpt=T2

Sadness and anger have greeted claims of a betting scam linked to the Pakistani cricket team during its major international match with England in London last week.

British police arrested a man Saturday accused of plotting to fix parts of the game, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN on Sunday. The International Cricket Council, the sport's governing body, says that no players nor team officials have been arrested.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100829...licecorruption

Britain's biggest-selling newspaper claimed several deliberate no-balls had been delivered by Pakistan bowlers.

The weekly tabloid said it gave 150,000 pounds to a middle man who correctly told them in advance precisely when those deliveries would be bowled.

[ . . . ]

It also ran a photograph of Pakistani captain Salman Butt standing with the man they claimed was the middleman, and one of their reporters.

[ . . . ]

The News of the World claimed their reporters had posed as front men for an Asian gambling cartel, paying 10,000 pounds to the alleged fixer as an upfront deposit.


They met again on Wednesday in a west London hotel room to hand over the rest of the money as their "entry ticket" into what they claimed was a "huge betting syndicate".


They claimed the middle man then correctly predicted when the no-balls would be bowled.

The newspaper showed the alleged fixer with piles of cash on a table.

[nik-]

NHL players make too much and the odds in deciding series are too close to make payoffs to enough players worth it.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by nik-

NHL players make too much and the odds in deciding series are too close to make payoffs to enough players worth it.

Money is an addiction. Having "too much" money has rarely stopped people before when it comes to corruption and scamming.

[HPLovecraft]

What I find most surprising is that the ICC is willing to go ahead with the tournament tomorrow, with the Pakistani team still playing, in light of these allegations and photographs.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by nik-

NHL players make too much and the odds in deciding series are too close to make payoffs to enough players worth it.

How much do cricket players make in comparison?

[nik-]

The increased salaries push the required money to buy them out into higher levels. Too much has nothing to do with them it's too much when placed against the return on the bet for the gambler.

[GirlySports]

It can't happen in NHL simply because there aren't enough betting options. You can bet on the game, total and per period maybe? not sure.

In cricket you can bet PER BALL! That would be like in baseball betting if the pitchers 50th pitch will be a ball or a strike. Or you can bet how many runs will be scores in X amount of balls etc....

Hockey is a continuously moving game.. what can a player influence really?

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

It can't happen in NHL simply because there aren't enough betting options. You can bet on the game, total and per period maybe? not sure.

In cricket you can bet PER BALL! That would be like in baseball betting if the pitchers 50th pitch will be a ball or a strike. Or you can bet how many runs will be scores in X amount of balls etc....

Hockey is a continuously moving game.. what can a player influence really?

Well, if I were going to try and buy out a player, it'd be the goaltender I go for. Easily the single most influence on the game.

Or, of course, the referees.

[afc wimbledon]

Players tend not to fix matches for the money they will make, they do it because of the money they owe, and the threat that said bookie will shop them and so end their career.

Micheal Jordon didn't decide to take up baseball on his own by all accounts, and there are few players in the NHL that have any where close to his dosh.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by nik-

The increased salaries push the required money to buy them out into higher levels. Too much has nothing to do with them it's too much when placed against the return on the bet for the gambler.

It's not big money, it's just greed. A few thousand dollars here, a few thousand dollars here. In cricket test matches a batter can let ball after ball after ball go or just block and not make any runs. Then when the odds go up they can just make a bunch of runs. Or vice versa.

The betting over there is crazy. Think of the smallest thing in your favorite sport and what can be bet on?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Hockey is a continuously moving game.. what can a player influence really?

We could check into whether Roberto Luongo put money on the Blackhawks to win...

I think it would take a fair bit of naivety to believe it can't happen in any sport. Greed is endless, and it is easily believable that a player can deliberately work to throw a game. Hell, Pete Rose did it as a manager!

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

Well, if I were going to try and buy out a player, it'd be the goaltender I go for. Easily the single most influence on the game.

Or, of course, the referees.

Or a top 4 defensemen, several hooking penalties can change a game

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

Well, if I were going to try and buy out a player, it'd be the goaltender I go for. Easily the single most influence on the game.

Or, of course, the referees.

Refs can only call penalties and after awhile it's pretty obvious.
A goalie can let in a few goals but then that get obvious too.

You have to look to a short independent thing that can be manipulated but not noticable. Can't do that in hockey because it's a constantly moving and players changing game.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Refs can only call penalties and after awhile it's pretty obvious.
A goalie can let in a few goals but then that get obvious too.

You have to look to a short independent thing that can be manipulated but not noticable. Can't do that in hockey because it's a constantly moving and players changing game.

We've seen plenty of games where goaltenders have let in monstrously bad goals. And we've all seen a million monstrously badly reffed games where phantom calls have been done every 3 minutes. Hell, I've even wondered myself, not believing it, of course, if a certain game was rigged or not because of the outlandish reffing.

I think a ref making bad calls in a game (and we've seen it lose games for teams), would just be caught in the background noise if it didn't happen too often.

[GirlySports]

True but a ref calling a penalty guarantees nothing, just a power play.

These are 100% definitive things that players are being paid to do.

You can totally manipulate a batter in cricket not to hit a ball.

"I'll pay you $10000 not to score a single run in the next 30 balls"

That's controllable. And since in cricket there are more non-scoring balls and scoring ones, it doesn't look 'weird'.

----

And hockey is still a small betting sport... not worldwide crazy money.

[afc wimbledon]

Betting is a business of odds, you arn't looking for a player to throw the game, just a slight statistical edge that over time will pay off, as such any player that takes an extra penalty or gives up a crucial icing because he or his family is in trouble with say a large and nasty russian is all tahts needed.

The sheer number of games half of which are meaningless make the NHL an ideal target, does anyone care who wins or what happens in a mid October Atlanta v Columbus game?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

True but a ref calling a penalty guarantees nothing, just a power play.

Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but a referee can severely slant the odds in one team's favour.

The Tim Donaghy scandal in the NBA has some interesting commentary. Among them, the argument that a crooked ref could influence the outcome of a game 75% of the time: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...xplainsNBAbets

Research into Donaghy's actions showed that at one point in 2007, there were ten consecutive games where large amounts of money were bet on a game he officiated. The big money won all ten games.

[endeavor]

I used to watch a lot of cricket before. But incidents like these have pushed me away from the sport. There was a huge scandal about ten years ago as well when the South African captain, Hanse Cronje, was caught and banned for life from cricket. It is a huge blight on the sport.

Plus I discovered hockey!

[Azure]

I think that some refs may have a bias at times, but I don't think its as serious as taking money to call a crooked game.

NHL players often hire professionals to look after their money. This leaves a lot of room for the players to be abused, and there have been many accounts of that. But now that we have numerous $5million/season players, certain people will have the reputation of knowing how to manage that much money for a bunch of guys who more often than not have nothing more than a high school education.

I'm not really worried. Even teams will have people in place to deal with the different circumstances involved with 23 guys making millions. And when you have GMs like Sutter who care deeply about his players, not to mention Ken King, I think the NHL is pretty well off in this regard.

[Reggie Dunlop]

That goal was IN.