Measurements and time limits discussed in this section often vary among tournaments and organizations; international and NBA rules are used in this section.

The object of the game is to outscore one’s opponents by throwing the ball through the opponents’ basket from above while preventing the opponents from doing so on their own. An attempt to score in this way is called a shot. A successful shot is worth two points, or three points if it is taken from beyond the three-point arc which is 6.25 meters (20 ft 6 in) from the basket in international games and 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m) in NBA games.

Playing regulations

Games are played in four quarters of 10 (international) or 12 minutes (NBA). Fifteen minutes are allowed for a half-time break, and two minutes are allowed at the other breaks. Overtime periods are five minutes long. Teams exchange baskets for the second half. The time allowed is actual playing time; the clock is stopped while the play is not active. Therefore, games generally take much longer to complete than the allotted game time, typically about two hours.

Five players from each team may be on the court at one time. Teams can have up to seven substitutes. Substitutions are unlimited but can only be done when play is stopped. Teams also have a coach, who oversees the development and strategies of the team, and other team personnel such as assistant coaches, managers, statisticians, doctors and trainers.

For both men’s and women’s teams, a standard uniform consists of a pair of shorts and a tank top with a clearly visible number, unique within the team, printed on both the front and back. Players wear high-top sneakers that provide extra ankle support. Typically, team names, players’ names and sometimes sponsors are printed on the uniforms.

A limited number of time-outs, clock stoppages requested by a coach for a short meeting with the players, are allowed. They generally last no longer than one minute unless, for televised games, a commercial break is needed.

The game is controlled by the officials consisting of the referee, one or two umpires and the table officials. The table officials are responsible for keeping track of each teams scoring, timekeeping, individual and team fouls, player substitutions, team possession arrow, and the shot clock.

Equipment

A basketball.

A diagram of a FIBA basketball court.

The only essential equipment in basketball is the ball and the court: a flat, rectangular surface with baskets at opposite ends. Competitive levels require the use of more equipment such as clocks, scoresheets, scoreboards, alternating possession arrows, and whistle-operated stop-clock systems.

The men’s ball’s circumference is about 30 inches (76 cm) and weighs about 1 lb 5 oz (600 g). The women’s ball’s circumference is about 29 inches (73 cm) and weighs about 1 lb 3 oz (540 g). A regulation basketball court in international games is 28 by 15 meters (approx. 92 by 49 ft) and in the NBA is 94 by 50 feet (29 by 15 m). Most courts are made of wood.

A cast-iron basket with net and backboard hang over each end of the court. At almost all levels of competition, the top of the rim is exactly 10 feet (3.05 m) above the court and 4 feet (1.2 m) inside the endline. While variation is possible in the dimensions of the court and backboard, it is considered important for the basket to be the correct height; a rim that is off by but a few inches can have an adverse effect on shooting.

Violations

The ball may be advanced toward the basket by being shot, passed between players, thrown, tapped, rolled or dribbled (bouncing the ball while running).

The ball must stay within the court; the last team to touch the ball before it travels out of bounds forfeits possession. The ball-handler may not move both feet without dribbling, known as traveling, nor may he dribble with both hands or catch the ball in between dribbles, a violation called double dribbling. A player’s hand must remain on top of the ball while dribbling, failure to do so is known as carrying the ball. A team, once having established ball control in the front half of the court, may not return the ball to the backcourt. The ball may not be kicked nor struck with the fist. A violation of these rules results in loss of possession, or, if committed by the defense, a reset of the shot clock.

There are limits imposed on the time taken before progressing the ball past halfway (8 seconds in international and NBA), before attempting a shot (24 seconds), holding the ball while closely guarded (5 seconds), and remaining in the restricted area (the lane, or “key”) (3 seconds). These rules are designed to promote more offense.

No player may interfere with the basket or ball on its downward flight to the basket, or while it is on the rim (or, in the NBA, while it is directly above the basket), a violation known as goaltending. If a defensive player goaltends, the attempted shot is considered to have been successful. If a teammate of the shooter goaltends, the basket is cancelled and the team loses possession.

Fouls

The referee signals that a foul has been committed.

An attempt to unfairly disadvantage an opponent through personal contact is illegal and is called a foul. These are most commonly committed by defensive players; however, they can be committed by offensive players as well. Players who are fouled either receive the ball to pass inbounds again, or receive one or more free throws if they are fouled in the act of shooting, depending on whether the shot was successful. One point is awarded for making a free throw, which is attempted from a line 4.5 metres (15 feet) from the basket.

There is some discretion with the referee when calling a foul — referees consider if there was unfair advantage gained, e.g. if a player were to gain possession unfairly, sometimes making fouls controversial calls. The calling of a foul can vary between games, leagues and even between referees.

A player or coach who shows poor sportsmanship, for instance, by arguing with a referee or by fighting with another player, can be charged with a technical foul. The penalty involves free throws and varies between leagues. Repeated incidents can result in disqualification. Blatant fouls with excessive contact or that are not an attempt to play the ball are called unsportsmanlike fouls (or flagrant fouls in the NBA) and incur a harsher penalty; in some rare cases a disqualifying foul will require the player to leave the playing area, known as an ejection.

If a team surpasses a preset limit of team fouls in a given period (quarter or half) – four for international and NBA games – the opposing team is awarded one or two free throws on all subsequent fouls for that period, the number depending on the league. A player who commits five fouls, including technical fouls, in one game (six in some professional leagues, including the NBA) is not allowed to participate for the rest of the game, and is described as having “fouled out”.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Early basketball

The first basketball court: Springfield College.

Basketball is unique in that it was invented by one person, rather than evolving from a different sport. In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-born physician of McGill University and minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep young men occupied during the long New England winters. Legend has it that, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules, and nailed a peach basket onto the 10 foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom. Therefore balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. Women’s basketball began in 1892, at Smith College, when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith’s rules for women. The first official basketball game was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day NBA court. “Basket ball”, the name suggested by one of Naismith’s students, was popular from the beginning.

Basketball’s early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly spread through the country. By 1896, it was well established at several women’s colleges. While the YMCA was responsible for initially developing and spreading the game, within a decade, it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA’s primary mission. However, other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules for the game.

Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use.

Interestingly, basketball, netball, volleyball and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and football, have British Commonwealth or European connections.

College basketball and early leagues

Kent Benson of Indiana University Bloomington takes a hook shot.

Naismith and Berenson were instrumental in establishing college basketball. Naismith coached at University of Kansas for six years before handing the reins to renowned coach Phog Allen. Naismith’s disciple Amos Alonzo Stagg brought basketball to the University of Chicago, while Adolph Rupp, a student of Naismith’s at Kansas, enjoyed great success as coach at the University of Kentucky. In 1892, University of California and Miss Head’s School, played the first women’s inter-institutional game. Berenson’s freshmen played the sophomore class in the first women’s collegiate basketball game at Smith College, March 21, 1893. The same year, Mount Holyoke and Sophie Newcomb College (coached by Clara Gregory Baer) women began playing basketball. By 1895, the game had spread to colleges across the country, including Wellesley, Vassar and Bryn Mawr. The first intercollegiate women’s game was on April 4, 1896. Stanford women played Berkeley, 9-on-9, ending in a 2-1 Stanford victory. In 1901, colleges, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, University of Minnesota, the U.S. Naval Academy, the University of Utah and Yale University began sponsoring men’s games. By 1910, frequent injuries on the men’s courts prompted President Roosevelt to suggest that college basketball form a governing body. And the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAA) was created.

Teams abounded from through the 1920s. There were hundreds of men’s professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States and little organization of the professional game. Players jumped from team to team and teams played in armories and smoky dance halls. Leagues came and went. And barnstorming squads such as the Original Celtics and two all African American teams, the New York Renaissance Five (“Rens”) and (still in existence as of 2006) the Harlem Globetrotters played up to two hundred games a year on their national tours. Women’s basketball was more structured. In 1905, the National Women’s Basketball Committee’s Executive Committee on Basket Ball Rules was created by the American Physical Education Association. These rules called for six to nine players per team and 11 officials. The International Women’s Sports Federation (1924) included a women’s basketball competition. 37 women’s high school varsity basketball or state tournaments were held by 1925. And in 1926, the Amateur Athletic Union backed the first national women’s basketball championship, complete with men’s rules. The first women’s AAU All-America team was chosen in 1929. Women’s industrial leagues sprang up throughout the nation, producing famous athletes like Babe Didrikson of the Golden Cyclones and the All American Red Heads Team who competed against men’s teams, using men’s rules. By 1938, the women’s national championship changed from a three-court game to two-court game with six players per team. The first men’s national championship tournament, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in New York, was organizied in 1938.

College basketball was rocked by gambling scandals from 1948 to 1951, when dozens of players from top teams were implicated in match fixing and point shaving. Partially spurred by an association with cheating, the NIT lost support to the NCAA national tournament. Today, the NCAA men’s and women’s “March Madness” tournaments are rivaled only by the MLB World Series and the NFL Super Bowl in the American sports psyche.

U.S. high school basketball

Before widespread school district consolidation, most United States high schools were far smaller than their present day counterparts and during the first decades of the 20th century basketball quickly became the ideal interscholastic sport due to its modest equipment and personnel requirements. In the days before widespread television coverage of professional and college sports, the popularity of high school basketball was unrivaled in many parts of America.

Today virtually every high school in the United States fields a basketball team in varsity competition, and its popularity remains high, both in rural areas where they carry the identification of the entire community, as well as at some larger schools known for their basketball teams where many players go on to participate at higher levels of competition after graduation. In the 2003–04 season, 1,002,797 boys and girls represented their schools in interscholastic basketball competition, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are particularly well known for their residents’ devotion to high school basketball; the critically acclaimed film Hoosiers shows high school basketball’s depth of meaning to these rural communities. In fact, the term “March Madness” was first used to describe the Illinois high school basketball tournament.

National Basketball Association

In 1946, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed, organizing the top professional teams and leading to greater popularity of the professional game. An upstart organization, the American Basketball Association, emerged in 1967 and briefly threatened the NBA’s dominance until the rival leagues merged in 1976. Today the NBA is the top professional basketball league in the world in terms of notoriety, salaries, talent, and level of competition.

The NBA has featured many famous players, including George Mikan, the first dominating “big man”; ball-handling wizard Bob Cousy and defensive genius Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics; Wilt Chamberlain, who originally played for the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters; all-around stars Oscar Robertson and Jerry West; more recent big men Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton; playmaker John Stockton; and the four players who many credit with ushering the professional game to its highest level of popularity: Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

The NBA-backed Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) began 1997. Though it had an insecure opening season, several marquee players (Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Sue Bird among others) helped the league’s popularity and level of competition. Other professional women’s basketball leagues in the United States, such as the American Basketball League (1996-1998), have folded in part because of the popularity of the WNBA.

In 2001, the NBA formed a developmental league, the NBDL. The league currently has 8 teams, but will add 7 more for the 2006-2007 season.

International basketball

A basketball game at Edwards Air Force Base

The International Basketball Federation was formed in 1932 by eight founding nations: Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland. At this time, the organization only oversaw amateur players. Its acronym, in French, was thus FIBA; the “A” standing for amateur.

Basketball was first included in the Olympic Games in 1936, although a demonstration tournament was held in 1904. This competition has usually been dominated by the United States, whose team has won all but three titles, the first loss in a controversial final game in Munich in 1972 against the Soviet Union. In 1950 the first Basketball World Championship for men was held in Argentina. Three years later, the first World Championships for women were held in Chile. Women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976, with teams such as Brazil and Australia rivaling the American squads.

FIBA dropped the distinction between amateur and professional players in 1989, and in 1992, professional players played for the first time in the Olympic Games. The United States’ dominance continued with the introduction of their Dream Team. However, with developing programs elsewhere, other national teams are starting to catch up with the United States. A team made entirely of NBA players finished sixth in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, behind Yugoslavia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand and Spain. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the United States suffered its first Olympic loss while using professional players, falling to the Puerto Rican national basketball team and eventually came in third after Argentina and Italy. Although it should be noted that only two of the tweleve players originally selected by the NBA, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, choose to play in the 2004 Olympics and the team was cobbled from second and third choices.

Worldwide, basketball tournaments are held for boys and girls of all age levels, from five- and six-year-olds (called biddy-biddy), to high school, college, and the professional leagues.

The global popularity of the sport is reflected in the nationalities represented in the NBA. Players from all over the globe can be found in NBA teams. Steve Nash, who won the 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP award as the Most Valuable Player in the NBA, is a Canadian player. Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki is German. All-Star Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies is from Spain The San Antonio Spurs feature three stars from outside the United States: Tim Duncan of the Virgin Islands, Manu Ginobili of Argentina, and Tony Parker of France. (Duncan competes for the United States internationally.)

The all-tournament team at the most recent Basketball World Championship held in 2002 in Indianapolis demonstrates the globalization of the game equally dramatically. The team featured Nowitzki, Ginobili, Peja Stojakovic of Yugoslavia, Yao Ming of China, and Pero Cameron of New Zealand; all except Cameron were or became NBA players.

In the NBA men get paid a great deal more than women playing in the WNBA but that is slowly changing.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Basketball is a sport in which two teams of five players each try to score points on one other by throwing a ball through a hoop (the basket) under organized rules.

Since its invention in 1891, it has developed to become a truly international sport. Organized league play originated in the YMCA and early leagues were formed in colleges. Basketball eventually became a professional sport and is one of the few women’s sports which developed in tandem with men’s. The modern rules for women’s basketball become more similar to men’s each year. Even though it was originally an American sport, it quickly spread internationally and outstanding players and teams are found today all over the world.

Points are scored for passing the ball through the basket from above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is not permitted and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).

Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players’ positions, and offensive and defensive structures. While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Basketball is also a popular spectator sport.

While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less regulated variations have become exceedingly popular as an outdoor sport among inner city groups, particularly African-Americans. Examples of these variations include streetball and one-on-one; a variation in which two players will use only a small section of the court (often no more than a quarter of a court) and compete to play the ball into a single hoop. Such games tend to be more physical than competitive indoor basketball, and emphasize individual dribbling and ball stealing skills over shooting and team play.

Outdoor basketball courts are commonly referred to as ‘blacktop’, a reference to the [asphalt] surface used on many outdoor recreation grounds. This term can apply regardless of the actual surface material used.

Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005.

Variations and similar games

Variations of basketball are activities based on the game of basketball, using common basketball skills and equipment (primarily the ball and basket). Some variations are only superficial rules changes, while others are distinct games with varying degrees of basketball influences. Other variations include children’s games, contests or activities meant to help players reinforce skills. Most of the variations are played in informal settings without referees or strict rules.

Perhaps the single most common variation is the half court game. Only one basket is used, and the ball must be “cleared” – passed or dribbled outside the half-court or three-point line – each time possession of the ball changes from one team to the other. Half-court games require less cardiovascular stamina, since players need not run back and forth a full court. Half-court games also raise the number of players that can use a court, an important benefit when many players want to play.

References

• National Basketball Association (2001). Official Rules of the National Basketball Association. Retrieved on July 16, 2004.
• International Basketball Federation (June 2004). Official Basketball Rules.
• Reimer, Anthony (June 2005). “FIBA vs North American Rules Comparison”. FIBA Assist (14): 40–44.
• Bonsor, Kevin. How Basketball Works: Who’s Who. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved on January 11, 2006.

Links

• National Basketball Association
• Women’s National Basketball Association
• International Basketball Federation
• Basketball at the Olympic Games
• Basketball Plays and Tips
• Sacred Hoops Youth Basketball
• History of Basketball
• Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
• Basketball on Yahoo!
• OzRef.com – Basketball Referees Resources

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

In horse racing terminology, a trifecta is a parimutuel bet in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third in exact order. The word comes from the related betting term, “perfecta.”

The term has been extended to the realm of politics, where it is used to describe a situation in which an executive of government appoints another elected official to a position and is also allowed to appoint his successor. This process can be chained together; in other words, the executive can appoint an elected official to a position, appoint another elected official to the other’s previous position, and finally appoint anyone to the second official’s position. The first permutation of this chain is called a “quadfecta”.

The trifecta system is seen by many as a loophole in democracy, because it allows an executive to essentially override a choice by the voters. This is mitigated by the fact that the system requires the agreement of all parties involved. Executives have been able to get around this by making the position offered a very financially lucrative or long term one.

In first-person shooter video games such as Counter-Strike, a trifecta can refer to a situation in which a single bullet kills three players.

A trifecta can also refer to any sequence of three (generally unfortunate) occurrences, drawing on the traditional belief that deaths (and presumably, disasters and other bad things) always come in groups of three.

The word trifecta is also slang for a three-point field goal in the game of basketball.

“Trifecta” is also gaining popularity as a slang term to describe any successful phenomenon that comes in threes, for example: “She has the ‘trifecta’ of attractiveness, intelligence, and career success.”

It is also a term in Limit Hold’em poker where a player checkraises on the flop, turn, and river.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A sportsbook (sometimes abbreviated as book) or a race and sports book is a place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, horse racing and boxing. The method of betting varies with the sport and the type of game. The more prominent the event, the more wagering options that are made available.

Winning bets are paid when the event finishes, or if not finished, when played long enough to becomes official; otherwise all bets are returned. This policy can cause some confusion since there can be a difference between what the sportsbook considers official and what the sports league consider official. Customers should carefully read the sportsbook rules before placing their bets.

The betting volume at sportsbooks varies throughout the year. Bettors have more interest in certain types of sports and increase the money wagered when those sports are in season. Likewise the interest in sports varies by country since the level of interest in the various sports is not constant the world over. Some major sporting events that don’t follow a specific schedule, like boxing, can create peaks of activity for the sportsbooks.

Word origin

A sportsbook is a portmanteau, French for “jacket holder,” meaning a suitcase with two storage spaces. Sportsbook combines two meanings into one word for a sports gambling operation, in this case SPORTS and BOOK which is short for bookmaking.

Odds

In the mid 1930s, Leo Hirschfield started a company in Minneapolis, Minnesota called Athletic Publications, Inc., that published and distributed odds to bookies across the country by telephone and telegraph. He had a team of handicappers analyzing the matchups who also studied newspapers across the country. The company was a major provider of odds and prices until it finally disbanded, under fear of prosecution from the Federal Wire Act of 1961.

Today most sportsbooks get their opening prices from other sportsbooks as well as private companies like Las Vegas Sports Consultants. They adjust prices based on the bets coming in, news, injury, and weather information, and the price movement by other sportsbooks.

Nevada sportsbooks

Today there are roughly 150 licensed sportsbooks in the United States, all located in Nevada casinos. Now that many casinos share the same parent company, they offer the exact same wagering choices and odds, which is a disadvantage to the astute gambler who in the past could do more shopping for better prices.

In the 1950s the first Nevada sportsbooks, called turf clubs, opened. They were independent from the casinos, and had an informal agreement with the hotels that they would stay out of the casino business as long as the hotels stayed out of the sportsbook business. The sportsbooks had to pay a 10% tax so they charged a high vigorish to gamblers, but they still brought in a lot of business.

In 1974 the tax was lowered to 2%, (and in 1983 lowered to 0.25%), and in 1975 Lefty Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust Casino, convinced legislators to allow them in the casinos, and soon nearly all of the casinos added them. The turf clubs were no longer able to compete and eventually all closed.

In Nevada casino sportsbooks you will find:

• Betting Windows
• Numerous big screen televisions
• Places to sit and watch
• Interactive betting stations
• Odds boards, usually computerized

UK sportsbooks

Betting shops are common in the United Kingdom. Companies like Ladbrokes and William Hill have offered walk-in betting shops for decades.

Internet sportsbooks

While internet sportsbooks lack face-to-face transactions, they can handle more customers than land based sportsbooks and operate more cost effectively. They pass lower costs on to customers in the form of reduced vigorish (cheaper prices) or bonus incentives. They can also offer similar products, such as casino games, bingo, and poker to their existing clients.

While Internet sportsbooks take bets online, normally they are licensed in some jurisdiction. Taxation and regulation vary greatly by country.

Internet sportsbooks range from fraudulent operations with no intention of paying their customers to multi-billion dollar publicly traded companies. Internet sportsbooks range in focus, as some primarily cater to American sports, while others focus on European soccer. Some sportsbooks handle large wagers while others have low wagering limits. Some offer many exotic proposition wagers, where others have limited choices. Payment methods are not universally accepted at all sportsbooks.

Costa Rica is home to a large number of offshore sportsbooks, as it caters to many of the needs of the industry with an open regulatory environment and a large, capable workforce. A number of sportsbooks are also located in Jamaica, Gibraltar, Antigua, Curaçao, Australia, and many other countries around the world.

The United States Justice Department claims that wagering at offshore sportsbooks is a violation of the 1961 Federal Wire Act. Jeffrey Trauman of Harwood, North Dakota, was the first player ever to be prosecuted for online sports betting in the United States. The former car salesman, who quit his job to become a professional gambler, was cited under a North Dakota state law. [1]

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Historically, sports betting has been associated with a number of unsavory characters, which has a lot to do with its desultory legal treatment throughout the world. Organized crime notoriously has relied upon sports betting for money laundering or funding purposes. The corruption or threat of a boxer to take a dive at the x round is a frequent theme in mafia-related movies. All of the American professional sports leagues, as well as the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), take stringent measures to disassociate themselves from sports gambling. Nevertheless, sports history is riddled with several incidents of athletes conspiring with gamblers to fix the outcomes of sporting events, or criminals acting against athletes whose on-field performance affected their wagers.

• In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book and movie form as “Eight Men Out”.
• In 1978, mobsters connected with the New York Lucchese crime family, among them Henry Hill and Jimmy Conway, organized a point shaving scheme with key members of the Boston College basketball team.
• Andrés Escobar, a Colombian defender, was murdered shortly after his return from the 1994 World Cup, where he scored an own goal, the first of a 2-1 defeat to the USA that knocked out the Colombians at the first phase. In the most believed explanation, the Medellín drug cartel bet large sums of money that Colombia would advance, and blamed the Medellín-born Escobar for the loss.
• In 1994, a comprehensive point shaving scheme organized by campus bookmaker Benny Silman and involving players from the Arizona State University men’s basketball team was uncovered with the assistance of Las Vegas bookmakers, who grew suspicious over repeated large wagers being made against Arizona State.
• On 10 February 1999, a plot to disable the floodlights of The Valley during a Charlton-Liverpool match was discovered. Three individuals were arrested, and the scam tracked to Malaysia, where the Premiership is very popular, and bets frequent.
• In early 2000, Hansie Cronje, then highly-regarded captain of the South African cricket team, rocked the cricketing world with frank admissions of match-fixing. Hansie admitted to receiving more than $140,000 USD from London-based bookies to influence aspects of his team’s performance. For example, he convinced Herschelle Gibbs to score less than 20 runs in a One Day International for a $15,000 USD reward. Hansie received a lifetime ban from any involvement in professional cricket but he maintained throughout his numerous trials that he never consipired to fix overall match results. He died tragically in a plane crash in 2002, leaving behind many unanswered questions and a tainted legacy.
• In late 2004, the game between Panionios and Dinamo Tbilisi in the 2004-05 UEFA Cup was suspected of being fixed after British bookmakers detected an unusually high number of half-time bets for a 5-2 win for the Greek side, which was trailing 0-1. As the final result ended up being 5-2, suspicions of fixing quickly emerged, but were quickly denied by both clubs, although UEFA started an investigation.
• The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side Pistoiese. The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri, Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000 which ended 1-1. Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese equalised three minutes from full time. Atalanta qualified for the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football, said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the result and many of the bets were for a 1-0 halftime score and a fulltime score of 1-1.
• In early 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) revealed that referee Robert Hoyzer was under investigation for suspected betting on a first-round German Cup tie between regional league side Paderborn and Bundesliga club Hamburger SV in August 2004, and possibly fixing the match. In the match, HSV took a 2-0 lead, but Hoyzer sent off HSV striker Emile Mpenza in the first half for alleged dissent (a sending-off that many observers considered unwarranted), and later awarded Paderborn two dubious penalties. Paderborn went on to win 4-2. Several days later, Hoyzer admitted to having fixed that match, as well as several others he worked. He went on to implicate other referees and several players in the scandal. Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after evidence emerged that he may have fixed more matches than he had admitted to fixing. On February 16, UEFA announced that it would send an investigator to Athens to investigate possible links between this scandal and the aforementioned Panionios-Dinamo UEFA Cup tie. Eventually, Hoyzer was sentenced to 2 years and 5 months in prison. The Croatian betting syndicate which had paid Hoyzer to fix matches was also found to be linked to the Panionios-Dinamo match.
• In late September 2005, two referees (Edilson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo Jose Danelon) were accused of fixing several matches in the São Paulo championship for an internet betting ring that moved over USD100,000 on each match day, receiving around USD 4,400 for each match. In the following days, Armando Marques, president of the national commission of referees resigned and Nagib Fayad and Vanderlei Pololi, two businessmen, were arrested as suspects of working as middlemen between the referees and the corruption ring. In early October, a court ordered that the matches where Carvalho was the referee would have to be replayed and free to the public. No decision was made about Danelon’s matches.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American retired professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Sir Charles,” for his aggressive and outspoken demeanor, and “The Round Mound of Rebound,” for his unusual build and talent as a player, Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association’s most dominating power forwards. He was selected to both the All-NBA First Team and All-NBA Second Team five times and once named to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances and was named the All-Star MVP in 1991. In 1993, he was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player and during the NBA’s 50th anniversary, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States’ Dream Team. In 2006, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. (Wikipedia)

Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In an interview with ESPN’s Trey Wingo, he revealed that he lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million “in a six hour period” while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT analyst Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, “It’s not a problem. If you’re a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don’t think it’s a problem. Do I think it’s a bad habit? Yes, I think it’s a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I’m going to continue to do it.”

Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, “No matter how much I win it ain’t a lot. It’s only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it’s fun, I think it’s exciting. I’m gonna continue to do it but I have to get to a point where I don’t try to break the casino ’cause you never can.” In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he had failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promising to pay it back.

Basketball: Barkley plans to pay up
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Hall of Fame basketball player Charles Barkley told a radio station he will repay the $400000 US he owes the Wynn Las Vegas casino for gambling debts. …

Charles Barkley faces gambling debt case
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A prosecutor says retired NBA star Charles Barkley will face felony charges if he fails to repay a $400000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …

Business Glance
Salt Lake Tribune, United States
Hall of Fame basketball player Charles Barkley told an Alabama radio station he will repay the $400000 he owes Wynn Resorts Ltd. for gambling debts. ..

Barkley says he will pay $400000 to Wynn Las Vegas
Sportsnet.ca, Canada
t’s a good bet that Charles Barkley will pay back the $400000 he admits he owes Wynn Las Vegas LLC. But the Hall of Famer and TNT NBA analyst disputes some …

Charles Barkley’s Gambling Debt Raises 10 Questions
Bleacher Report, CA
by Greg Adams (Scribe) To be fair, in the article, it is noted that Barkley can make restitution to avoid felony bad check charges. Yowsers. $400K? …

Sports Watch
KFOR, OK
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A prosecutor says retired NBA star Charles Barkley will face felony charges if he fails to repay a $400000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …

Celebrity Gossip Round-Up
CKFR, Canada
The Wynn Las Vegas resort has filed suit against former NBA star Charles Barkley, claiming he owes the casino $400000 in gambling markers. …

Sports Buzz
Kansas City Star, MO
A day after being sued for failing to repay four $100000 casino markers, former NBA star Charles Barkley acknowledged he owed the $400000 gambling debt. …

Sox set to fatten up on home cooking — if they hit
Chicago Tribune, United States
Charles Barkley owes $400000 dating to markers the Wynn Hotel extended to him last October. Barkley previously said he has a gambling problem. …

Sports Buzz
The Birmingham News – al.com, AL
Charles Barkley has a right to spend his money as he wishes. If he wants to gamble and lose $400000 in a Las Vegas casino in a two-day span, …
Basketball briefs News & Observer

Sports Briefs
Windsor Star, Canada
BARKLEY SUED The Wynn Las Vegas casino has sued former NBA star Charles Barkley, saying he owes US$400000 in gambling debts, the Las Vegas Sun reported …
Bob Ford: Pimlico stirs memories of triumph and tragedy Philadelphia Inquirer

Off the wire
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, AR
Former NBA star Charles Barkley, 45, now a basketball analyst for Turner Network Television, acknowledged he owes a $ 400, 000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …

Basketball: Casino sues Barkley
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
The Wynn Las Vegas casino has sued former NBA star Charles Barkley, saying he owes $400000 US in gambling debts, the Las Vegas Sun reported yesterday. …