I receive a lot of requests for me to send people so-called fixed matches, by which I mean matches where the result is already known before the match has been played. Let’s call it what is really is which is cheating.
Now over the past few years there has been a lot of talk about this in the press, especially around cricket, tennis and football where players have received fines, bans and have even spent time in prison Fixed Match. This has piqued the interest of sports gamblers, who are naturally interested in how they might able to take advantage of this sure thing.
Where there is interest and where there is money involved there will always follow the scavenger and like a dirty, circling vulture, we now have the scammers who are attempting to prey. A quick look at twitter shows dozens of handles, all purporting to offer fixed matches in exchange for a fee:Fixed Match and www.fixedmatch-house.com are a couple of them. The format is the same, lots of shouting, lot of talk of sure bets and 100% and lots of dodgy, photoshopped screenshots. Make no mistake, these are scams, you will give your money and receive nothing apart from perhaps a few predictions that are far from ‘sure’ or ‘fixed.
Let me explain why.
There have, in the past, been many matches where a player or a team has lost on purpose, or has manipulated a score for financial gain. I have seen odds moving in such a way that it is obvious. Tennis is a great example, many years ago there were several Argentinian and Italian players (as well as a few others) who were coming to the end of their career and fancied a payday. At no point, however, were any of these matches sold to the public, the players were in it purely for their own private financial gain. To tell anybody about what they planned to do, apart from perhaps a close friend or 2, would be suicidal, it would leave an easy to follow trail which would lead directly back to them meaning fines, end of career and perhaps worse.
This remains the case today. There are very, very few matches which are fixed, the authorities are so aware of the possibility and are in communication with the bookmakers once any strange odds movement is detected. The twitter scammers would make you believe that there are dozens per day, even involving top sides in the Premiership; just ask yourself how plausible that is? How likely is it that a player earning 100k per week would risk that all for a small payday? It is ridiculous and simply not possible.
If you are ever approached by someone offering fixed matches let me know please and whatever you do, keep your money in your pocket. The 100% guarantee is not that the match is fixed but that you will lose your money.
One final thought. I was approached by a former member of my betting group offering me fixed matches. I played along in order to find out more information and he offered to give me a 100% sure fixed match as an example. The match was Estoril v Tondela and he promised me a ‘big away win for Tondela. The result? Estoril 3 – 0 Tondela.
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