Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a
proposition bet
In gambling, a "proposition bet" (prop bet, prop, novelty, or a side bet) is a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game (usually a gambling game) of an event not directly affecting the game's final outcome.
Proposition be ...
. Examples include something as minor as timing a no ball or wide delivery in
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
or timing the first throw-in or corner in association football.
Spot-fixing attempts to defraud bookmakers by a player taking a pre-arranged action to fix the result of that specific event.
Spot-fixing differs from
match fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
in which the final result of a match is fixed or
point shaving
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team from covering a p ...
in which players (or officials) attempt to limit the margin of victory of the favoured team. Spot-fixing is more difficult to detect than match fixing or point shaving, and by its nature, it can be perpetrated by a lone fraudulent player without any other players or officials being needed to co-operate. The growth of
Internet gambling
Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and ...
and increased variety of betting options (for example,
spread betting
Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome (game theory), outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, such as fixed-odds betting, fixed-odds (or mon ...
, first-scorer betting) resulted in the emergence of spot-fixing, particularly through the first decade of the 2000s.
Examples
Association football
Following his retirement,
Matt Le Tissier
Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team.
Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to non ...
admitted that he had bet on the timing of the first throw-in in a match he played for Southampton against Wimbledon in 1995. The plan failed when a teammate who was unaware of the scam managed to keep his underhit pass on the pitch.
Le Tissier was forced to quickly kick the ball from play to prevent losing money on the bet and managed to "push" after kicking the ball out after 70 seconds. He stated that he felt so silly about the incident that he never attempted it again.
Cricket
Spot fixing in cricket first came to international prominence in the
2010 Pakistan tour of England, when it was determined that Pakistani players
Mohammad Asif and
Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Amir ( ur, ; born 13 April 1992) is a Pakistani cricketer and bowler for the Pakistan national cricket team. He is playing as a left-arm fast-medium bowler and uses his left hand when batting.
Amir made his first-class debut in N ...
intentionally bowled no-balls on specific deliveries as part of a conspiracy involving captain
Salman Butt
Salman Butt (, born 7 October 1984) is a former Pakistani cricketer and captain who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2003 and 2010, before getting banned for five years for his involvement in 2010 spot-fixing scandal.
He had ...
to defraud bookmakers. As a result, Butt was banned for ten years, Asif for seven years and Amir for five years. The matter became a criminal investigation that resulted in custodial sentences for four people involved; in November 2011, Butt was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment, with Asif being imprisoned for one year and Amir jailed for six months.
Five players in the
2012 Indian Premier League season were suspended for spot-fixing. The five players were
Mohnish Mishra
Mohnish Dinesh Mishra (born 9 February 1984) is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. He was banned from Indian cricket due to his signing with the rebel ICL. Subsequently, Mishra left the ICL an ...
,
Shalabh Srivastava
Shalabh Jagdishprasad Srivastava (born 22 September 1981 in Allahabad) is an Indian first-class cricketer. He is a left arm fast-medium bowler who played for Uttar Pradesh, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Giants before he was banned.
Srivastava re ...
,
TP Sudhindra
TP Sudhindra (born 24 April 1984) is an Indian first-class cricketer. He is a right-arm medium pace bowler who bowls consistently at around 130 km/h and relies on accuracy, and bats left-handed. He is banned from taking part in any officia ...
, Harmeet Singh and Abhinav Bali. The suspensions were not for any specific event during the season, but a
sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...
revealed all five either discussing earlier cases of spot-fixing they had been involved in, or seeking future spot-fixing opportunities.
In India,
three Indian players in
IPL Season 6 (2013) were arrested for spot-fixing:
Sreesanth,
Ankeet Chavan
Ankeet Chavan (born 28 October 1985) is a cricketer who played for Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. He is an all-rounder who is a left-handed batsman and slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He also played for Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier Lea ...
and
Ajit Chandila. Along with them, eleven bookmakers were arrested. The Delhi Police arrested the three players in a post-midnight operation in Mumbai on 16 May 2013 for accepting payments of up to Rs. 6 million, for giving away a pre-determined number of runs in an over. On 13 September,
Sreesanth was given a lifetime ban from the sport.
In England, allegations of spot-fixing were made against
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
bowler
Mervyn Westfield
Mervyn Simon Westfield (born 5 May 1988 in Romford, Greater London) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler who until September 2010 played for Essex. In January 2012, he became the first Englis ...
, after he bowled poorly in a
Pro40
The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days o ...
match against Durham in September 2009. Westfield later pleaded guilty to accepting money for spot-fixing in the match, specifically that he attempted to concede twelve runs from his first over (although he conceded only ten);
he was banned for five years and his Essex team-mate and former Pakistan Test bowler
Danish Kaneria
Danish Parabha Shankar Kaneria ( ur, ; ), (born 16 December 1980) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2000 and 2010. A right-arm leg spinner known for his well-disguised googly. He is fourth ...
received a life ban after he was found to have orchestrated the fix.
The advent of
Twenty20 cricket
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inning ...
is said to have made spot-fixing more difficult to detect in cricket, because the faster and more variable nature of the game makes anomalies related to spot-fixing less visible.
Rugby league
Australian
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
player
Ryan Tandy
Ryan Tandy (20 September 1981 – 28 April 2014) was international rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played as a in the National Rugby League for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Wests Tige ...
was found guilty of spot-fixing during a 2010
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
season match between
North Queensland Cowboys
The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL).
Sinc ...
and
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...
. Tandy, playing for Canterbury-Bankstown, was involved in spot-fixing the first score of the match to be a North Queensland penalty goal. Observers noted that there had been an unusually high proportion of bets taken on the penalty goal option for the game. Then, in the opening minutes of the game, Tandy was found to have deliberately conceded a
knock-on from the match's kick-off and then a penalty for slowing down the play-the-ball in the Cowboys' first attacking set in front of the goalposts, giving North Queensland a chance to kick an easy penalty goal. As it happened, the spot-fixing attempt was unsuccessful, as North Queensland passed up its penalty goal opportunity and scored a try instead. In 2011, Tandy was found guilty of attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage on 6 October 2011, and he received a six-month correction order from the courts and a life ban from rugby league.
See also
*
Betting controversies in cricket
Cricket has had a number of controversies relating to players being involved with the betting aspects of the game. In particular, numerous players have been approached by bookmakers and bribed to throw matches, aspects of matches (e.g. the toss) ...
*
Courtsiding
Courtsiding is the practice of transmitting information from sporting events for the purpose of gambling, or of placing bets directly from a sporting event. It has been observed as occurring most prominently, although not exclusively, in tennis. ...
, an equivalent concept prevalent in tennis
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spot-Fixing
Association football controversies
Cricket controversies
Match fixing
Sports betting scandals