Match fixing in Ireland

[Maldini]

A pretty wild story has broken this week involving Irish first division (2nd tier) side Athlone Town. They were taken over by a group of "mystery investors" last year (the FAI won't release their identities for some some reason) and subsequently signed a few Portuguese players, a handful of players who had previously played in Portugal and brought in a Portuguese manager.

 

One of the players with Portuguese league experience they signed was a Latvian keeper called Igor Labuts who had previously spoken of being approached by Asian match fixers and whose three previous clubs had all been investigated by UEFA for match fixing.

 

Last week they played Longford and the craziness kicked into gear. Just before half-time he conceded this goal: https://www.facebook.com/AthloneTownFcFans/videos/1336655016417354/

 

Pretty obvious something fishy is going on there but they'd probably have gotten away with if it wasn't for what came towards the end of the game. One of the Athlone subs comes on and gets sent off before even touching the ball, then with just 3 mins left there was so much money coming in on the game that the odds of another goal before FT were odds on which as anyone who bets will know is extremely weird.

 

It turns out over €400k had been bet on this complete inconsequential game in the Irish midlands with an audience of 407.

 

Apparently Athlone Town fans had been screaming at anyone and everyone for weeks that something dodgy was going on there but nobody listened, now it looks like their club might get thrown out of the league.

 

More reading here:

 

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/revealed-the-betting-anomaly-which-has-triggered-the-fai-probe-into-athlone-town-35679451.html

 

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/irregular-betting-patterns-lead-to-garda-inquiry-into-athlone-town-fc-35679017.html

Edited May 5, 2017 by Maldini

[Tones]

Mad that. Something dodgy going on no doubt. Doubts like it should have been sorted a lot earlier. The whole thing is fishy

[Maldini]

Yeah, the FAI only recently signed a relatively lucrative deal to screen games in Asia via the internet as well. What interest would Asia have in mostly amateur football in Ireland if it wasn't nefarious 

[Tones]

Yeah, the FAI only recently signed a relatively lucrative deal to screen games in Asia via the internet as well. What interest would Asia have in mostly amateur football in Ireland if it wasn't nefarious

And the FAI didn't find that suspicious???

[dorgie]

And the FAI didn't find that suspicious???

 

The FAI + money coming in their direction = ask no questions.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

That goal is f***ing lame but not impossible to concede if you're a bit s***.

 

The rest of the story though....

 

Assume bookies haven't paid out

[Tones]

The FAI + money coming in their direction = ask no questions.

Yeah. That's how I remember the FAI

[Hightown Phil]

Yeah, the FAI only recently signed a relatively lucrative deal to screen games in Asia via the internet as well. What interest would Asia have in mostly amateur football in Ireland if it wasn't nefarious 

 

If you're interested in fixing a football match then being able to watch it on TV is miles down your list of things you're bothered about. Arguably it's not on it at all. 

[cymrococh]

Best Thai restaurant I've ever been to is in Athlone.

[kop205]

Good thread title.

 

Reminds me of this

 

[Maldini]

If you're interested in fixing a football match then being able to watch it on TV is miles down your list of things you're bothered about. Arguably it's not on it at all. 

 

Well you'd want to make sure the lads thousands of miles away that you never met are doing the things you paid them to do and not just taking your cash

[Hightown Phil]

Well you'd want to make sure the lads thousands of miles away that you never met are doing the things you paid them to do and not just taking your cash

 

Then you'd pay someone to go. 

[heighway]

This is yet another thing that frustrates me about how superficial most of footie coverage is on TV. There are loads of issues worthy of proper debate and investigation but all the punditry you get on telly is at the same level that I was reading in Shoot and Goal magazines when I was ten years old. You could easily have a weekly investigative Panorama-style programme delving into all the murky money stuff in modern football -agents, betting, contracts, bidding for world cups, fifa, club ownerships, etc etc etc

Edited May 5, 2017 by heighway

[Rory Fitzgerald]

If you're interested in fixing a football match then being able to watch it on TV is miles down your list of things you're bothered about. Arguably it's not on it at all.

I think it's probably an attempt at justifying some of the placements.

 

TV deal then an incremental increase in amounts bet (due to bigger audience) then go for your kill.

[Hightown Phil]

I think it's probably an attempt at justifying some of the placements.

 

TV deal then an incremental increase in amounts bet (due to bigger audience) then go for your kill.

There are millions of pounds bet on pretty much every game of football played. If you wanna fix it you don't need that.

[dorgie]

The tv deal is definitely dodgy. However, I can't for a minute imagine that Athlone Town v Longford Town in a meaningless 2nd tier game would ever be screened live under any deal.

[Tones]

The tv deal is definitely dodgy. However, I can't for a minute imagine that Athlone Town v Longford Town in a meaningless 2nd tier game would ever be screened live under any deal.

Can't imagine who would be interested in watching that on tv. Anywhere

[Hightown Phil]

The huge betting syndicates (the legitimate ones) by and large analyse their football by watching it and looking at all of the shots/chances in a game so if they can get the pictures they can put the data through their algorithms and use the information for betting. 

 

They care very little about how good the standard is as long as they can bet on it. 

[Gunga Din]

its absolutely rife at that level. lads getting a few quid a week for playing, and bookies offering odds on matches at that level is asking for trouble.  

[cymrococh]

its absolutely rife at that level. lads getting a few quid a week for playing, and bookies offering odds on matches at that level is asking for trouble.  

Seems like an obvious state of affairs, crazy that the bookies involve themselves with it. The legitimate market beyond people actually involved in the game must be tiny.

[Boca]

Seems like an obvious state of affairs, crazy that the bookies involve themselves with it. The legitimate market beyond people actually involved in the game must be tiny.

 

To put it in context, the biggest betting scandal in LOI before this was a player betting €20 on a match his team was playing. 

[Hightown Phil]

Seems like an obvious state of affairs, crazy that the bookies involve themselves with it. The legitimate market beyond people actually involved in the game must be tiny.

 

You'd genuinely be surprised at some of the absolute s***e people bet on. I once accidentally opened something I was testing that said 'Team 1 v Team 2' for about 5 minutes and took €500 before I'd realised it shouldn't be open. No team names, no actual game they could track on line, no nothing. 

 

The limits are generally pretty low so this kind of stuff is only offered to be a service and look good 'WOW LOOK HOW MUCH FOOTBALL WE PRICE UP' etc etc and regular bookies aren't really going to be damaged by this kind of thing. Most of the money will go in to unregulated betting markets in Asia where they'll probably all just kill each other at some point anyway.

[Gunga Din]

people bet on any oul s***e. last time i was in a bookies shop there were lads betting on cartoon horses. virtual racing i think they called it. utter madness

[Hightown Phil]

people bet on any oul s****. last time i was in a bookies shop there were lads betting on cartoon horses. virtual racing i think they called it. utter madness

 

I'm pretty sure there's actually form for that.

[muleskinner]

You mean Portman Park and Steepledowns arent real?