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CAUSES

Intro

Within the PrOFS project, an overarching study was conducted into the causes of various forms of sports-related fraud according to existing scientific literature. Consider gambling-related match fixing, non-gambling match fixing, corruption, financial fraud and human trafficking. Curious about who the perpetrators are, who becomes a victim and how the control mechanisms are not sufficient to prevent sports-related fraud? Read more!

Causes of gambling-related match fixing

Betting-related match fixing refers to the manipulation of sporting events with the aim of influencing the outcome of matches (or parts of them) so that it benefits those who have placed bets. These actions are often agreed in advance with bookmakers or gamblers, who place bets on these specific partial outcomes.

Gambling-related match fixing often focuses on the athlete, with financial and social motivations as the main drivers.

Financial pressure is one of the main motivations. Athletes near the end of their careers are more vulnerable to participating in gambling-related match fixing. This is often due to the uncertainty about their future and the need to provide a financial safety net. Low and even unpaid salaries of athletes also pose a vulnerability. In some cases, the financial pressure arises from all kinds of (gambling) addictions.

Social factors can make individuals vulnerable to participating in gambling-related match fixing. Social pressure and certain group dynamics can make it difficult to resist. Sometimes there may be threats and coercion to participate in match fixing.
In addition to the athletes, the sport itself plays a central role as a suitable target for gambling-related match fixing. Deficiencies in the management of sports organizations and the gambling sector are important in this regard.

Problems in the governance of sports organizations contribute to the vulnerabilities to gambling-related match fixing. Many sports organizations are financially unhealthy and have a lack of financial transparency.

The ever-growing (online) gambling sector makes the sports sector vulnerable to gambling-related match fixing. Today, even the smallest details of a match can be gambled on. The enormous amounts of money involved in the sector also makes it easier for criminal organizations to deploy large amounts without attracting too much attention
The absence of effective preventive measures from (inter)national sports organizations and public authorities encourages gambling-related match fixing.

Although there are international initiatives to detect gambling-related match fixing, such as the Early Warning Systems, these often fall short. Many initiatives focus exclusively on the regular gambling sector. In doing so, they ignore the irregular gambling markets, where the majority of criminal activities take place. In addition, not every country has specific legislation for gambling-related match-fixing, which makes prosecution and punishment more difficult.

An additional phenomenon that complicates the prevention of gambling-related match fixing is the fact that gambling is highly normalized in society.
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Boniface, P., Lacarrière, S., Verschuuren, P., Tuaillon, A., Forrest, D., Icard, J.-M., Meyer, J.- P., & Wang, X. (2012). Sports betting and corruption. How to preserve the integrity of sport.

Brooks, G., Aleem, A., & Button, M. (Eds.). (2013). Fraud, Corruption and Sport (1st ed.). Palgrave MacMillan.

Campman, T. (2019). Addressing match fixing and corruption in collegiate athletics in light of NCAA v. murphy. Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, 36(3), 477– 500.

Di Ronco, A., & Lavorgna, A. (2015). Fair play? Not so much: Corruption in Italian football. Trends in Organized Crime, 18(3), 176–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-014-9233-9

Dietl, H., & Weingärtner, C. (2012). Betting scandals and attenuated property rights – How betting related match fixing can be prevented in future (No. 154).

Forrest, D. (2012). The threat to football from betting-related corruption. International Journal of Sport Finance, 7(2), 99–116.

Hill, D. (2015). Jumping into Fixing. Trends in Organized Crime, 18(3), 212–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-014-9237-5

Hill, D., Rasmussen, C., Vittorio, M., & Myers, D. (2020). Red-flagging the leagues: the U.S. Sports most in danger from match-fixing. Sport in Society, 23(11), 1774–1792. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2020.1804114

Lastra, R., Bell, P., & Bond, C. (2018). Sports betting and the integrity of Australian sport: Athletes’ and non-athletes’ perceptions of betting-motivated corruption in sport. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 52, 185–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2017.11.005

Manoli, A. E., Antonopoulos, G. A., & Bairner, A. (2019). The inevitability of corruption in Greek football. Soccer and Society, 20(2), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2017.1302936

Soldani, J. (2015). Le cimetière des “éléphants noirs”. Une tude anthropologique des matches truly relatifs aux paris dans le baseball taïwanais. Anthropologie et Sociétés, 39(3), 217–235. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7202/1034767ar

Struyve, R., Vanwersch, L., & Hardyns, W. (2024). Unraveling the Zheyun Ye football scandal: A crime script analysis of the modus operandi to commit money laundering and tax fraud. Trends in Organized Crime, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-024-09545-1

Tak, M., Sam, M. P., & Jackson, S.J. (2018). The politics of countermeasures against match-fixing in sport: A political sociology approach to policy instruments. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 53(1), 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690216639748

Causes of sporting match fixing

Non-gambling match fixing, or sporting match fixing, is an illegal practice in which athletes, coaches, officials or others involved in a sporting competition deliberately influence the outcome of the match (or parts of it) in order to gain personal advantage. This includes deliberate actions to influence the outcome of a match, such as the score progression or the winner of the match.

The actor at the center of sporting match fixing is usually the athlete.

Motivations for sporting match fixing are mainly sporting in nature. For example, an athlete may deliberately lose a match to avoid a certain opponent in the next phase of the competition.

Sporting goals can also go hand in hand with certain benefits. For example, referees may be motivated to engage in match-fixing by promises of career benefits or money.
The tournament design of a particular sport can make it an attractive target for sporting match-fixing. Moreover, this is not always considered (morally) reprehensible, but rather a tactical part of the sport.
Sports are particularly susceptible to sporting match-fixing when the match-fixing is carried out by an individual. This type of fraud - or lone wolf match fixing - is referred to by the literature as the least detectable.

Despite the presence of laws and ethical codes, effective implementation and compliance is often lacking. Moreover, existing laws generally focus more on gambling-related match-fixing, meaning that non-gambling-related variants receive less attention.

This type of match fixing is more likely to occur when motivated perpetrators (athletes) are combined with poorly structured competitions in undetectable conditions.
Christiansen, A. V., & Hjørngard, M. W. (2013). You can't buy something you aren't. On fixing results in cycling. Fair Play, 1(2), 64–84

Constandt, B., & Willem, A. (2021). Stimulating ethical behavior and good governance in sport. In A. Geeraert & F. van Eekeren (Eds.), Good Governance in Sport Critical Reflections (1st ed., pp. 210–220). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003172833- 16

Holden, J. T., & Rodenberg, R.M. (2017). Lone-wolf match-fixing: global policy considerations. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 9(1), 137–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2016.1202304

Kihl, L. (2018). Micro view. Individual and group explanations of sport corruption. In L. Kihl (Ed.), Corruption in sport: Causes, consequences, and reform (1st ed., pp. 30–44). Routledge.

Numerato, D. (2016). Corruption and public secrecy: An ethnography of football match fixing. Current Sociology, 64(5), 699–717. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392115599815

Ordway, C., & Opie, H. (2016). Integrity and corruption in sports. In N. Schulenkorf & S. Frawley (Eds.), Critical Issues in Global Sport Management (1st ed., pp. 41–67). Routledge.

Van Der Hoeven, S., De Waegeneer, E., Constandt, B., & Willem, A. (2020). Match fixing: Moral challenges for those involved. Ethics and Behavior, 30(6), 425–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2019.1667238

Vandercruysse, L., Vermeersch, A., & Vander Beken, T. (2021). Macolin and beyond: legal and regulatory initiatives against match manipulation. The International Sports Law Journal. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s40318-021-00205-y

Causes of corruption

Corruption generally refers to the abuse of power for personal gain. The central actors here are members of sports organizations and those involved in the organization of sporting events.

There can be several motivations for corruption:

Financial motivations such as maintaining luxurious lifestyles or addictions.

The social structures within sports organizations can also be a breeding ground for corruption. For example, sports actors can bribe politicians or board members to influence future decisions in their favor. Such practices are often reinforced by close-knit, informal networks within sports organizations, which facilitate and perpetuate corruption.

The organizational structures of sporting events play a crucial role in the development of corruption. Countries and politicians can use bribery to bring these prestigious events to their region. This not only provides economic benefits and increased visibility for the country, but also increases its political influence.
The central target is the sport itself. Corruption is often discussed in the organization and allocation of mega sporting events (e.g. the Olympic Games). The negotiations within these international (sports) organizations often take place in secret. In addition, due to the globalization of sport, there are many different actors and motives, which increases the chance of corruption.
(Inter)national sports federations hold an influential social position, but this status and relative independence make it challenging to effectively hold them accountable. Public authorities often have difficulty getting a grip on these (sports) organizations due to their size and global reach
Doidge, M. (2018). “Either Everyone Was Guilty or Everyone Was Innocent”1: The Italian Power Elite, Neopatrimonialism, and the Importance of Social Relations. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(2), 115–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723517751606

Follert, F., Richau, L., Emrich, E., & Pierdzioch, C. (2020). Collective Decision-Making: FIFA from the Perspective of Public Choice. Economists’ Voice, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/ev-2019-0031

Geeraert, A. (2018). “Bad barrels”. Corruption in international sports federations. In L. Kihl (Ed.), Corruption in sport: Causes, consequences, and reform (1st ed., pp. 45–61). Routledge.

Jancsics, D. (2014). Interdisciplinary perspectives on corruption. Sociology Compass, 8(4), 358–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12146

Kihl, L., Misener, K. E., Cuskelly, G., & Wicker, P. (2021). Tip of the iceberg? An international investigation of fraud in community sport. Sport Management Review, 24(1), 24–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2020.06.001

Manoli, A. E., & Janečić, D. (2020). Challenges to the role of media in reporting sport corruption: Insights from reporters in Balkan countries. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690220967284

Matheson, V., Schwab, D., & Koval, P. (2018). Corruption in the bidding, construction and organization of Mega-Events: an analysis of the Olympics and World Cup. In M. Breuer & D. Forrest (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook on the Economics of Manipulation in Professional Sports (pp. 257–278). Palgrave MacMillan.

Nelson, T., & Cottrell, M.P. (2016). Sports without referees? The power of the International Olympic Committee and the social politics of accountability. European Journal of International Relations, 22(2), 437–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066115589386

Szymanski, S. (2016). Compromise or compromised? The bidding process for the award of the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. In G. Sweeney (Ed.), Global Corruption Report: Sport (1st ed., pp. 157–162). Routledge.

Causes of financial fraud

Financial fraud is the intentional deception or manipulation of financial information for the purpose of financial gain or to avoid financial problems.

The underlying motivations of financial fraud are therefore financial. The financial pressure that sports organizations face can encourage them to commit financial fraud.
Sports are considered an attractive target for financial fraud due to the high liquidity and complex valuation of athletes. These factors make it difficult to effectively combat fraud.
The ownership structure of sports clubs plays a crucial role in protecting against financial fraud. Sports in which individuals can easily become owners are at increased risk of fraudulent practices. At the same time, a lack of financial transparency within sports clubs contributes to this vulnerability, as it hinders effective oversight and increases opportunities for fraud.
Anderson, J. (2018). Match Fixing and Money Laundering. In J.-P. Villeneuve & M. Pasquier (Eds.), International Sports Betting. Integrity, Deviance, Governance and Policy (1st ed., pp. 64–78). Routledge.

Medhi, A. (2016). Unfit, improper ownership in UK football clubs. In G. Sweeney (Ed.), Global Corruption Report: Sport (1st ed., pp. 109–113). Routledge.

Nelen, H. (2015). Professional football and crime: Exploring terra incognito in studies on white-collar crime. In J. van Erp, W. Huisman, & G. Vande Walle (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of white-collar crime and corporate crime in Europe (1st ed., p. pp.292-303). Routledge

Causes of human trafficking in and through sport

Young, vulnerable athletes in particular are victims of human trafficking in sports.

Financial gain is the main motivation for human trafficking in the context of sports.
Targets of human traffickers are often young athletes, usually from developing countries, who are in a precarious financial situation. These young athletes are often highly motivated to practice their sport in Western countries and thus follow the careers of their idols.
A lack of effective laws and regulations makes young athletes extra vulnerable to human trafficking. For example, the FIFA rules surrounding player transfers can be circumvented relatively easily, and the regulations surrounding player agents are often vague and easy to abuse. In addition, young players regularly receive unpaid and temporary contracts, partly due to restrictions on their payment, which further weakens their position. A lack of effective laws and regulations makes young athletes extra vulnerable to human trafficking. For example, the FIFA rules surrounding player transfers can be circumvented relatively easily, and the regulations surrounding player agents are often vague and easy to abuse. In addition, young players regularly receive unpaid and temporary contracts, partly due to restrictions on their payment, which further weakens their position
Tsuma, C. (2016). Corruption in African sports. A summary. In G. Sweeney (Ed.), Global Corruption Report: Sport (pp. 44–51). Routledge.

Yilmaz, S., Esson, J., Darby, P., Drywood, E., & Mason, C. (2020). Children's rights and the regulations on the transfer of young players in football. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(1), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690218786665