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Aggression

no comment Posted by Nicolae

In the game of poker, opens and raises are considered aggressive plays, while calls and checks are considered passive (though a check-raise would be considered a very aggressive play). It is said that “aggression has its own value”, meaning that often aggressive plays can make money with weak hands because of bluff value. Aggressive plays also tend to give the opponents more opportunities to make mistakes.

While it is true that aggressive play is generally superior to passive play, using any play exclusively can lead to predictability, and being too predictable is far worse than being too passive. A player who is constantly aggressive and plays many inferior hands is called a “maniac”, and skilled players will take advantage of him by calling him more often, using isolation plays, and by other means.

If a player is not aggressive with his weaker hands, the opponents can safely fold whenever the player does bet or raise. The appropriate amount of aggression can be computed using game theory, and depends on the game being played and the tendencies of the opponents.

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

January 20th, 2010

Parlay

no comment Posted by Nicolae

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay is that there are much higher payoffs than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher. If any of the bets in the parlay loses, the entire parlay loses.For example: Joe placed a three-team NFL parlay on the Lions, Bears and Bengals. If any one of those teams fail to cover the spread, Joe loses his parlay bet. But if all three teams beat the spread, Joe gets paid $600 for every $100 bet.

Links

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

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April 8th, 2009

Over-under

no comment Posted by Nicolae

An over-under or over/under bet is a wager in which a sportsbook will predict a number for a statistic in a given game (usually the combined score of the two teams), and bettors wager that the actual number in the game will be either higher or lower than that number. For example, in Super Bowl XXXIX, most Las Vegas casinos set the over-under for the score of the game at 46.0. A bettor could wager that the combined score of the two teams would be either more than or less than that number (as it happened, the combined score was 45, so anyone who had bet the under won).

Statistics

Though this bet is most commonly made with the combined score of the two teams, many other statistics can be used, including:

  • A team’s win-loss record for the season
  • In football, a player’s or team’s total rushing yards or attempts, first down conversions, third down conversions, interceptions, completions, etc.
  • In basketball, a player’s or team’s total assists, blocks, turnovers, steals, field goal percentage, etc.
  • In baseball, a player’s or team’s total number of home runs, RBI, etc.

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

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March 22nd, 2009

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

no comment Posted by Nicolae

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) are computerised machines normally found in betting shops which allow players to bet on the outcome of various games and events with Fixed Odds. They were introduced to UK shops in 2002, shortly after the abolition of the Betting Tax in October 2001.The most commonly played game is Roulette. The minimum bet per spin is £1 and the maximum is £100. Chips can be as small as 20 pence. The maximum amount that can be won on any spin is £500.

Other games include Spoof, Bingo, Virtual Racing and Triple Disc.

Shops are allowed a maximum of four such terminals, although since this number also includes fruit machines, many shops have fewer than four.

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

Published under Wagering guidesend this post
January 28th, 2009

Exacta

no comment Posted by Nicolae

hrsj0001

An Exacta is a type of bet placed in horse racing which requires the bettor to select the 1st and 2nd place finishers of the race in the correct order.This is more difficult than selecting only the winner of the race, and the resulting payouts for correctly placing an exacta bet are therefore correspondingly higher.

Called a perfecta in some New England (U.S.) states, though this particular use of nomenclature is widely considered to be anomalous.

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

Video: xacta Magic Churchill Downs Horse Racing 10/29/08

Published under Wagering guidesend this post
January 21st, 2009

Dead pool

4 comments Posted by Nicolae

http://www.gamblingweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/humor304.png

A dead pool, or deathpool is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved. The combination of dead or death and betting-pool, refers to such a gambling arrangement. A typical modern dead pool might have players pick out celebrities who they think will die within the year. There are several scoring variants. For example, a player might be rewarded few, if any, points for predicting the death of someone who is over 80 years old or is suffering from a terminal disease. Other pools require participants to form a list ranked on how sure they are that a person on the list will die, with points given based on how high a person on their list is ranked, and others award points based on how many other contestants selected the deceased celebrity. Another variant on the game has a single point awarded for each correct prediction, regardless of the celebrity’s age or medical condition. The advantage of this scoring method is that there is more scoring, and it rewards research (learning which celebrities are experiencing failing health) rather than luck.One example of the concept is a series of segments on the Howard Stern Radio Show, where show regulars would place bets into a celebrity death pool, each trying to predict the next celebrity to pass on. The practice has been expanded to include wagering on such abstract entities as businesses.

Definitions of celebrity vary from contest to contest. Smaller pools may rely on consensus of the players as to who is famous. Others require an obituary to appear in a recognized newswire such as the Associated Press or Reuters. The Lee Atwater Invitational employed a Fame Committee consisting of non-contestants who assess ahead of time the name-recognition of each celebrity. The Rotten.com Dead Pool, the largest in the world, uses NNDB as its source of qualified celebrities, and as arbiter of their life status.

The concept and success strategies are also detailed in an annual guide called “The Dead Pool”, written by KQRS radio personality Mike Gelfand and author Mike Wilkinson. KQRS also does an annual on air dead pool contest, similar to Stern’s, where show hosts and listners will attempt to pick which celebrity will die in that calendar year.

In most pools, killing the celebrity in question is considered cheating and results in the killer’s immediate disqualification from the pool. Such a dead pool was depicted in the aptly-titled Clint Eastwood movie, The Dead Pool.

Death List is unlike a traditional dead pool as there are no competitors involved and no points are awarded. The names on the list are chosen by a committee, members of Death List then track the well-being of the chosen celebrities over the course of the year. The Death List was first conceived in a student bar on November 29th 1986, the inspiration being the death of Cary Grant earlier the same day. The list’s aim is to predict which people in the public eye will die in the following year. Ever since 1987, a list has been drawn up, but starting in 1994 the Death List has consisted of 50 prominent people chosen annually by the committee, who might merit a prominent obituary in the UK media — ranging from politicans, religious figures and show business stars.

The Dead Pool is also an arena in the Mortal Kombat series only being featured in Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat: Deception. The stage itself is a pit surrounded with acid. On Mortal Kombat II, you had to wait for the “Finish Him/Her”" screen, then you could knock your opponent in the acid, and it would count as a Fatality. On Mortal Kombat Deception, you could just knock your opponent in the acid with a single powerful strike.

Links

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

Video: CSI Miami – End of Death Pool

Published under Gambling variantssend this post
November 9th, 2008

Poker big bet

7 comments Posted by Nicolae

http://www.gamblingweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/cards3.png

In a fixed-limit poker game, a big bet (BB) is the larger of two fixed bet amounts. A big bet is used in the final rounds of a game to increase the pot amount and thereby enable the possibility of a bluff. Big bets are generally double the wager of the initial or small bet. Any multi-round poker game can use big bets to standardize wagers while maintaining a sufficient risk-ratio to encourage bluffing. Casino poker tables use big bets to set a limit to the amount of money a patron can lose in each wager.

Statistical Analysis

Big bets are used in place of variable limit raises to add considerable risk to staying in a game until a hand is shown. This added risk enables other players to bluff or to win a considerable pot when proving that they weren’t bluffing. Other methods of adding structure to poker games include buy-in limits and maximum raise limits. Some sort of table or bet limits are required in poker to keep a person with the “deepest pockets” from “buying the game.”

Examples

While any multi-round poker game can use big bets, the unlimited buy-in nature of casino style play is best suited for BB limits. Casinos can advertise the relatively low maximum wager of the BB as a way of attracting players, and players can join the table at any time.

Casino style draw poker

Big bets are used in draw poker during the final round of betting to weed out tentative players. In theory, only those committed to their hand after seeing their final cards will be motivated to wager twice as much as their previous bet. In practice, however, additional motivation for players to fold is usually needed in a single draw game such as: a half-pot limit, a pot limit, or a spread limit. No limit poker is only employed when table limits are imposed, thereby disallowing casino guests to join the table after play has started.

Texas hold ‘em

In a $2/$4 Texas hold ‘em game, the big bet would be $4, wagered in each bet of the last two cards. The $2 would be the small bet, wagered during all other bets of the game. Given that a small bet is generally half of a big bet and that a small blind is generally half of the small bet, the minimum BB in casino style holdem is four cents. On the other side of the scale, the largest required BB in regular play is that of $8000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. At this table, professionals like Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Chau Giang, and Gus Hansen, along with wealthy tourists, are required to wager $8000 in each bet of each of the final two rounds of the game.

Omaha hold ‘em

Big Bets are used in Omaha poker to allow buy-ins of players at any time. The American casino variant of Omaha, called Omaha Eight-or-Better has a greater odds of winning and therefore less motivation to fold with a tentative hand. For that reason Omaha Eight-or-Better is sometimes played in a pot limit betting structure instead of big bets.

Casino style seven-card stud

Big bets are used in seven-card stud, generally after the last upcard, to motivate tentative players who already have a lot of money in the pot to fold anyway. By the last upcard, seven-card stud players have wagered an ante and three rounds of betting. With that much money already in the pot, there is little motivation to drop out during the final two rounds of betting, especially when there is a possibility that another player may be bluffing. The effect of adding the requirement of a big bet to the final two rounds of seven-card stud betting is that the game becomes one more of skill than of luck.

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

September 5th, 2008

Jueteng

3 comments Posted by Nicolae

Jueteng (pronounced wet-teng) is an illegal numbers game played in the Philippines. Jueteng came from China and it means flower (jue) and bet (teng). Although illegal, it is a widely popular game with participation that crosses most, if not all social and economic boundaries, played by rich and poor alike. With long odds and no limits on minimum or maximum bets, the lure of quick riches through a lucrative payout is by far its strongest appeal.The game relies heavily on having a large number of wagers, and there is no limit to the amount of the bet(s). Usually the gambler selects two numbers from 1 through 37, and the winning number is determined by selecting a pair of numbers from a set of 37 numbered balls. Thus the theoretical odds of winning on any one play are one in 37C2, or 1/666. This is unlike the numbers games in the U.S. during the early part of the 20th century, where the last digit of the winning pay out or the number of the winning horse for three consecutive races determined the winning combination.

Although much has been done to curtail or eradicate this form of unregulated gambling by government and community leaders, it appears that such efforts have fallen by the wayside due to its vast popularity, and the poverty which cripples the country.

Scandals

Jueteng was brought to notoriety in 2000 during the impeachment proceedings of deposed Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who was accused of receiving illegal payoffs from gambling profits. Another political scandal erupted in June 2005 involving allegations that relatives of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo received payouts from jueteng operators.

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

Published under Lottery Guide, Rules, gamessend this post
September 5th, 2008

Poker jargon – B

no comment Posted by Nicolae

Poker jargon - B

baby
A low-ranked card, usually used in lowball games. Also “spoke” when between ace and five.
backdoor
  1. A draw requiring two or more rounds to fill. For example, catching two consecutive cards in two rounds of seven-card stud or Texas hold ‘em to fill a straight or flush.
  2. A hand made other than the hand the player intended to make. I started with four hearts hoping for a flush, but I backdoored two more kings and my trips won.
back in
  1. To enter a pot by checking and then calling someone else’s open on the first betting round. Usually used in games like Jackpots, meaning to enter without openers.
  2. To enter a pot cheaply or for free because of having posted a blind.
back into
To win a pot with a hand that would have folded to any bet. For example, two players enter a pot of draw poker, both drawing to flushes. Both miss, and check after the draw. The player with the ace-high draw “backs into” winning the pot against the player with only a king-high draw. Also to make a backdoor draw, for example, a player who starts a hand with three of a kind, but makes a runner-runner flush, can be said to back into the flush.
bank
Also called the house, the person responsible for distributing chips, keeping track of the buy-ins, and paying winners at the end of the game.
bankroll
The amount of money that a player has to wager for the duration of his or her poker career.
behind
  1. Not currently having the best hand. I’m pretty sure my pair of jacks was behind Lou’s kings, but I had other draws, so I kept playing.
  2. Describing money in play but not visible as chips in front a player. For example, a player may announce “I’ve got $100 behind” while handing money to a casino employee, meaning that he intends those chips to be in play as soon as they are brought to him.
berry patch
A game with many unskilled or “live” players; a lucrative opportunity for profit.
bet
  1. Any money wagered during the play of a hand.
  2. More specifically, the opening bet of a betting round.
  3. In a fixed limit game, the standard betting amount. There were six bets in the pot when I called.
big bet game
A game played with a no limit or pot limit betting structure.
big blind
See blind.
big blind special
A situation in which (assuming no raising) the player in the big blind is dealt weak hole cards, but ends up making the best hand because he or she was able to see the flop for free, often two pair with unusual cards such as 3-9 or 10-2.
blank
A card, frequently a community card, of no apparent value. I suspected Margaret had a good draw, but the river card was a blank, so I bet again.
blaze
A hand of five face cards that used to outrank a flush.
bleed
To lose small amounts continually, so as to add up to a large loss. I won that large pot with my kings, but then I bled it all off over the next hour.
blind
  1. A type of forced bet.
  2. In the “dark”.
blind stud
A stud poker game in which all cards are dealt face down. Was popular in California before legal rulings made traditional stud legal there.
blind off, blinded
  1. To “ante off”.
  2. To have one’s stack reduced by paying ever increasing blinds in tournaments. Ted had to make a move soon or he would be blinded away in three more rounds.
bluff-catcher
On the last betting round, a hand that cannot win if the opponent is making a legitimate value bet, but that might win if the opponent’s bet was a pure bluff. It looked like Jim and I were both drawing for a flush. I missed and he bet, but I figured the pair of nines I caught along the way made a bluff-catcher, so I called.
board
  1. The set of community cards in a community card game. If another spade hits the board, I’ll have to fold.
  2. The set of face-up cards of a particular player in a stud game. Zack’s board didn’t look too scary, so I bet into him again.
  3. The set of all face-up cards in a stud game. I started with a flush draw, but there were already four other diamonds showing on the board, so I folded.
bomb
A “brick”.
bone
A chip, often of small denomination.
both ways
Both halves of a split pot, often declared by a player who thinks he or she will win both low and high.
bottom end
The lowest of several possible straights, especially in a community card game. For example, in Texas hold’em with the cards 5-6-7 on the board, a player holding 3-4 has the bottom end straight, while a player holding 4-8 or 8-9 has a higher straight.
bottom pair, bottom set
In a community card game, a pair (or set) made by matching the lowest-ranking board card with one (or two) in one’s private hand.
box
The chip tray in front of a house dealer, and by extension, the house dealer’s position at the table. You’ve been in the box for an hour now; don’t you get a break?
boxed card
A card encountered face-up in the assembled deck during the deal, as opposed to one overturned in the act of dealing. Most house rules treat a boxed card as if it didn’t exist; that is, it is placed aside and not used. Different rules cover cards exposed during the deal.
break
  1. In a draw poker game, to discard cards that make a made hand in the hope of making a much better one. For example, a player with J-J-10-9-8 may wish to break his pair of jacks to draw for the straight, and a lowball player may break his 9-high 9-5-4-2-A to draw for the wheel.
  2. To end a session of play. The game broke at about 3:00.
brick
A “blank”, though more often used in the derogatory sense of a card that is undesirable rather than merely inconsequential, such as a card of high rank or one that makes a pair in a low-hand game.
bring in
  1. To open a betting round. Alice brought it in for $5, and Bob raised $10.
  2. A kind of forced bet. Ted posted the bring-in.
brush
  1. A casino employee whose job it is to greet players entering the poker room, maintain the list of persons waiting to play, announce open seats, and various other duties (including brushing off tables to prepare them for new games, hence the name).
  2. To recruit players into a game. Dave is brushing up some players for tonight’s game.
bubble
The last finishing position in a poker tournament before entering the payout structure. He was very frustrated after getting eliminated on the bubble. Also can be applied to other situations like if six players will make a televised final table the player finishing seventh will go out on the “TV bubble”.
bullet
  1. An ace.
  2. A chip.
bully
To bluff repeatedly at all opportunities, or a player who does so. Compare to “run over”.
bum deal
A mis-deal
bump
To raise. Alice bet $5 and Bob bumped it to $20.
busted
  1. Not complete, such as four cards to a straight that never gets the fifth card to complete it.
  2. Out of chips. To “bust out” is to lose all of one’s chips.
buy-in
The minimum required amount of chips to become involved in a game (or tournament). For example, a $4-$8 fixed limit game might require a player to buy at least $40 worth of chips to play. This is typically far less than an average player would expect to play with for any amount of time, but large enough that the player can play a number of hands without buying more, so the game isn’t slowed down by constant chip-buying.
buy short
To buy into a game for an amount smaller than the normal buy-in. Some casinos allow this under certain circumstances, such as after having lost a full buy-in, or if all players agree to allow it.
buy the button
A rule originating in northern California casinos in games played with blinds, in which a new player sitting down with the button to his right (who would normally be required to sit out a hand as the button passed him, then post to come in) may choose to pay the amount of both blinds for this one hand (the amount of the large blind playing as a live blind, and the amount of the small blind as dead money), play this hand, and then receive the button on the next hand as if he had been playing all along.
buy the pot
Making a bet when no one else is betting so as to force the other players to fold in order to win the pot uncontested.

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

Published under Poker, Poker jargonsend this post
June 29th, 2008

Bank job

no comment Posted by Nicolae

Betting Station

In gambling, a Bank Job is a term for putting all of your money on a particular betting option, for instance “Yankees to beat the Kansas City Royals is a Bank Job”

It is often mocked by statements claiming people have “Multiple Banks” on a particular bet, for instance “I have 4 Banks on Chelsea to win the English Premier League”

June 26th, 2008

Spread betting

no comment Posted by Nicolae

Chess Players in Dupont Circle

Spread betting is a form of gambling on the outcome of any event where the more accurate the gamble, the more is won and conversely the less accurate the more is lost. A bet is made against a ‘spread’ (or index), on whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. The amount won or lost depends on the level of the index at the end of the event. The spread represents the index firms’ margin.

The concept has a long history in American sports betting and was exported to the United Kingdom in the 1980s. In North America the bettor usually bets that the difference in the scores of two teams will be less than or greater than a value specified by the bookmaker. For example, if a bettor places a bet on an underdog in an American football game when the spread is 3.5 points, he is said to take the points; he will win his bet if the underdog’s score plus 3.5 points is greater than the favourite’s score. If he had taken the favourite, he would have been giving the points and would win if the favourite’s score less 3.5 points was greater than the underdog’s score.

Spreads may be specified in half-point fractions to avoid ties, or pushes. The winner of a North American spread bet wins the amount that he has bet, while a losing bettor loses the amount wagered plus the bookmaker’s commission, which is commonly known as the vigorish or vig, and is usually 10 per cent of the original wager; in the United Kingdom both sides are held at odds of 9-10. In North American betting a push is treated as if no bet at all had been made, while in the United Kingdom “dead heat” rules apply, resulting in a net loss of £5 on a £100 wager due to the 9-10 odds of the proposition.

If a key player on a side is marginally injured and may or may not play, the “sports book” — or establishment that handles the bets — may declare the game off-limits to bettors (by not quoting any spread at all on it), or may “circle” the game; in the latter scenario, lower maximum amounts for each bet are enforced (typically $5,000 instead of the $25,000 limit observed at most Las Vegas sports books) and certain specialty wagers, such as “teasers,” are banned on either side in the game. (A “teaser” is a bet that alters the spread in the bettor’s favour by a predetermined margin, often six points – for example, if the line is 3.5 points and the bettor wants to place a “teaser” bet on the underdog, he takes 9.5 points instead; a teaser bet on the favourite would mean that the bettor takes 2.5 points instead of having to give the 3.5. In return for the additional points, the payout if the bettor wins is less than even money. At some establishments, the “reverse teaser” also exists, which alters the spread against the bettor, who gets paid off at more than even money if the bet wins.)

In the United Kingdom spread betting has come to resemble the futures market. The bets are usually on the outcome of sporting events or indeed on financial instruments, but the firms often offer bets on more arbitrary events – such as the number of corners during a football match or the total shirt numbers of the goal scorers.

Unlike fixed odds betting the amount won or lost can be very large, as there is no single stake to limit the maximum losses. However, it is usually possible to place a “stop loss” with the bookmaker, automatically closing the bet if the value of the spread moves against the better by a specified amount. “Stop wins” are the opposite — closing the bet when the spread moves in a better’s favour by a specified amount.

Example: In a soccer match between Liverpool and Everton the spread for corners is 12-13, the index firm believes there will be 12 or 13 corners in total during the match. A bettor approaches the firm with the belief that there will be more than 13 corners during the game, the bettor ‘buys’ at £25 a point at 13. If the final total of corners is 16 the bettor has won, receiving 3 x £25. If the final total of corners is 10, the bettor loses 3 x £25. A ‘sell’ transaction is similar except made against the bottom value of the spread. Often there is live pricing, which changes the spread during the course of an event allowing a profit to be increased or a loss minimized.

In North American sports betting many of these wagers would be classified as over-under (or, more commonly today, total) bets rather than spread bets. However, these are for one side or another of a total only, and do not increase the amount won or lost as the actual moves away from the bookmaker’s prediction. Instead, over-under or total bets are handled much like point-spread bets on a team, with the usual 10% commission applied. Many Nevada sports books will allow these bets to be used in parlays, just like team point-spread bets, making it possible to bet, for instance, “the Packers and the over,” and be paid if both the Packers “cover” the point spread and the total score is higher than the book’s prediction. (Such parlays usually pay off at odds of 13:5 with no “vig,” just as a standard two-team parlay would.)

The mathematical analysis of spreads and spread betting is a large and growing subject. For example, sports which have simple 1 point scoring systems (e.g. baseball, hockey, and soccer) may be analysed using Poisson and Skellam statistics.

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

June 17th, 2008

Soft lines

no comment Posted by Nicolae

Soft lines is a betting terminology representing betting odds that have been poorly researched by sportsbooks.

Handicappers commonly use this term to emphasize the value of their play. Since handicappers can focus on a smaller subset of all the possible games, they have the chance to identify soft lines. Soft lines usually exist in the games where the least number of people bet because there is less incentive by the sportsbooks to put an effort into making strong lines.

June 12th, 2008

Betting scandals

no comment Posted by Nicolae

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.

June 7th, 2008