Gambling and The World Cup Soccer Event

Starting June 11th, all eyes will be on one of the colossal sporting events on this planet as the 2010 World Cup kicks off from South Africa. With the enormity of such an event, gambling dollars will be abundant and likely will set a record high in volume. In the 2006 World Cup, it was estimated that 40 billion was wagered on soccer in Europe, North America and Asia. That is a staggering number and when money like that is involved you can’t help but think that corruption is not far behind. When the gambling charlatan’s got wind of such figures, one can only imagine the “planning” that took place leading up to this year’s event. Take a poor country like Nigeria, with players that don’t earn even remotely close to what players in England and France do for instance. One must wonder just how easy it would be for game-fixers to sway a few key players into throwing a game. It almost seems too obvious. It used to be that gambling on sporting events was geographically limited. North American gamblers wagered on the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA while European gamblers wagered on soccer. However, with the globalization of sports betting that has all changed and now it’s open season on all sports, in all markets. Even the Asian market is being flagged as a major expansion prospect and online books are cashing in big time. Because of player salaries in the millions, fixing one of the four majors in North America would be a difficult thing to do but in this soccer environment it would not. With 32 teams competing in the World Cup and many of them representing financially poor countries, filled with rosters of poor players, how hard would it be to persuade a goalkeeper from one of these countries to let in a softie, when you consider the reward that could be offered. There are billions of wagering dollars at stake and a thrown game could set up one or several players for life. It is unlikely to happen with the likes of England, France, Portugal, Brazil and numerous others because player incomes are off the charts. For instance, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo will earn 30M (U.S.) this year alone and he’s joined by dozens of other countries that pay their soccer stars in that range. By contrast, top-flight players for Cameroon are fortunate to earn more than $1600 per month. Players will be approached and the temptation will be great because in most cases, money trumps pride when you are short on the latter.