1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:03,559 Speaker 1: Hi everyone, this is Tim O'Brien. I'm sorry to miss 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: you this week. I'm happy to say the reason I'm 3 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 1: missing you is because I'm on vacation. But in light 4 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 1: of the ongoing Women's World Cup, we wanted to re 5 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: air an episode we really loved making about how sports 6 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:19,400 Speaker 1: gambling and match fixing are having a negative effect on sports. 7 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: It was part of a series we aired around the 8 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,440 Speaker 1: Super Bowl about gambling. We'll link to the other episodes 9 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,079 Speaker 1: in the show notes if you want to go back 10 00:00:26,079 --> 00:00:30,600 Speaker 1: and find those. So, okay, let's get to this episode 11 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: and I'll see you soon. Why do you care at 12 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: all that matches are getting fixed? Why does it matter? 13 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 2: Because I love it? I love sports. I love sport, 14 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 2: I like the competition. 15 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 1: What are the consequences of not doing anything? It's the 16 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: end of the sports because the second that fans believe 17 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 1: that none of it's legitimate, yeah, you lose everything else everything. 18 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: Andreas Kronich is a special kind of sleuth, and I 19 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: went all of the way to lun In to talk 20 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: to him for today's show. Andreas investigates scammers who rig 21 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: some of the sports matches you watch on TV. And 22 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:13,759 Speaker 1: here's something you should know match fixing is everywhere. It's 23 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: in soccer, it's in basketball, it's even in tennis, so 24 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:20,839 Speaker 1: I hoped on a plane to learn more about it. 25 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: It's a beautiful March morning, and I'm on a side 26 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: street in London's Financial district, not too far from Saint 27 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: Paul's and Bloomberg's headquarters. And I'm at sport Radar, a 28 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 1: Swiss company that specializes in tracking corruption in sport and 29 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: match fixing in sports due to the growth of gambling. 30 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,039 Speaker 1: And I'm going to go into today and meet with 31 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: some of their senior executives. And one of the things 32 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: I'm very curious to learn today is the extent to 33 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: which the gambling boom is causing more games to be fixed, 34 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: more athletes to get bribed, more coaches and referees to 35 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: get bribed in order to corrupt the outcome of as 36 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Crash Course, a podcast about business, political, and 37 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 1: social disruption and what we can learn from it. I'm 38 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: Tim O'Brien. In the last episode, I looked at how 39 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: digital gambling has revolutionized the sports world. This installment is 40 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 1: the second of three episodes about the past, present and 41 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: future of the multi billion dollars sports betting boom and 42 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: its impact on games, fans and society. And here's something 43 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: I worry about. When there's billions of dollars on the line, 44 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: how likely is it that your favorite sport is going 45 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: to get corrupted? So, for this crash course, sports gambling 46 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: versus match fixing. Gamblers and criminals have been trying to 47 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: rig games since, like the Olympics first began. It still 48 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: goes on all the time if you look for it. 49 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: I decided to look for it, which brought me to 50 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 1: sport Radars London offices. They have an amazing team there 51 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: that's out the entire planet for potential fixes. I envisioned 52 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: sport Radar looking like a NASA control room, just one 53 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: populated by street smart gambling experts. I thought we'd have 54 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: a soccer game up on the big screen in London, 55 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: and then at some point an analyst would leap up, 56 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,639 Speaker 1: point at something and say, look, there it's fixed. Andreas 57 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 1: was quick to tell me that wasn't exactly how they 58 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: did things. 59 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 2: If we detect a match to be manipulated for betting purposes, 60 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 2: we don't watch the match, We watch the odds, and 61 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 2: the odds they do not lie. 62 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: And to prove this, he took me on a tour. 63 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 2: Where we are Now, this is uh, how do you 64 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 2: call it? 65 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 1: This is the mission, the control room, the brain exactly. 66 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: So this is fraud detection Central. 67 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 2: This is the fraud detection system. And we also have 68 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 2: some investigators also working side by side with the analysts. 69 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: And the investigators are doing human intelligence gathering. 70 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 2: It's to find to identify ten grunts of scent into 71 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 2: desert and contextualize it. And this is done with hardware 72 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 2: and software and disguis which are extremely good to find 73 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 2: all publicly available digital information. 74 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: In the room I'm looking at right now, this could 75 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: be a computer gaming room if it wasn't a sports 76 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: analysts room. 77 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 3: Right. 78 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: It's a bunch of guys in T shirts who look 79 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:31,559 Speaker 1: like gamers. Andreas and I are standing in a large 80 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: conference room stock with about three dozen computers and wall 81 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 1: mounted flat panels showing sports matches amid a sea of 82 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:42,600 Speaker 1: data jockeys. Andreas looks like a wiry version of Woody Harrelson. 83 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: He's really animated and energetic, and he oversees a group 84 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:52,679 Speaker 1: of former intelligence operatives, police detectives, journalists, and computer geeks 85 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: that track five hundred thousand sporting matches a year worldwide. 86 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: They're looking for fraud and they start with the numbers 87 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 1: by examining unusual and often suspicious shifts in betting lines. 88 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 2: I come from the world of sport, so I understand 89 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 2: what such a scandal, emetrixing scandal, or incident means to sport. 90 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,600 Speaker 2: It has very severe consequences, Yeah, for the individuals involved, 91 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,039 Speaker 2: because if the edugation is out, they destroy you. 92 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: Because of the sensitivity of their work, sport Radar asked 93 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: me not to name the teams or countries in the 94 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:34,160 Speaker 1: pending investigations or games we were looking at. Still, they 95 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: showed me a lot, including live games producing enough anomalies 96 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: to make them suspicious. A senior manager named Adam Francis 97 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,119 Speaker 1: was one of my tour guides. He was young, looked 98 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: like he belonged in Silicon Valley. We sat down in 99 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:51,440 Speaker 1: front of his laptop. Like Wall Street regulators, following stock 100 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: moves that smell of insider trading. The sport Radar crew 101 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: believes that wacky odds on a game may prove there's 102 00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 1: a scam. Adam explained how works. 103 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 4: Right now, we're looking at the screen that our analysts 104 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 4: will look at every day, and what we can see 105 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 4: here is a display of matches that are being played today, 106 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,280 Speaker 4: either ones that have finished already, ones that are currently 107 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 4: in play, or will be played later today globally, globally 108 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 4: across all sports, and specifically, what this screen is showing 109 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 4: is all the matches that the fraud detection system has 110 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 4: highlighted as already having a significant betting movement. 111 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: Significant betting movement before a game starts doesn't necessarily mean 112 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: there's something fishy going on here. Sport Radar calculates its 113 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,479 Speaker 1: own benchmark before a match begins, what it calls expected 114 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:42,280 Speaker 1: odds or calculated odds, and then it monitors how bookies 115 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,279 Speaker 1: odds worldwide shift against that standard. 116 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:49,040 Speaker 4: That's based on a wealth of historical data, and at 117 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 4: any given minute of the match can tell us exactly 118 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:54,159 Speaker 4: what the odds should be in a normal match. 119 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: When Bookies' odds very dramatically from sport Radar's expected odds, 120 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:04,799 Speaker 1: trouble my be brewing or maybe not. For example, Adam 121 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: says COVID nineteen could leave star players benched at the 122 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:12,240 Speaker 1: last minute, That, of course, would also change odds. Injuries 123 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: and bad weather can also play roles. Still, an alert 124 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: is an alert, and the sport Radar sleuths examine them. 125 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,120 Speaker 4: When they see that there is a match that has 126 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 4: an alert, even from one book maker, they will look 127 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 4: into these alerts. They'll do it for every single match 128 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 4: when alert is generated, and they will try to find 129 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 4: the reason why that betting movement has occurred. 130 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: But it's usually during a game, not before when evidence 131 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: of match fixing surfaces. That means a lot of gamblers 132 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,640 Speaker 1: will bet on something happening in the game while the 133 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: game is already going on. Live bets have bigger payoffs. 134 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: As Adam watches the game, he'll keep an eye on 135 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,360 Speaker 1: two lines tracking two different sets of numbers. One line 136 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: shows the bookmaker's odds throughout the game, what the bets 137 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: are saying the outcome of the game should be. The 138 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: other line shows sport Radars expected odds, what sport Radar 139 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: thinks the outcome should be. 140 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 4: We're seeing each minute of the match. We've got the 141 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 4: score line of the match in the graph. 142 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:13,000 Speaker 1: You're showing me right now for the first fifty five minute, 143 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,440 Speaker 1: well actually maybe at the end, up until halftime, right 144 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: up until halftime, the bookmaker's odds and the actual gambling 145 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: odds are fairly consistent. 146 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 4: Exactly that they're tracking very very closely, and this is 147 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:28,520 Speaker 4: what we see in the vast majority of matches. 148 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: And then, like an earthquake, something happens. 149 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:34,240 Speaker 4: Exactly that we start to see a small deviation from 150 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 4: the calculated levels just after halftime, by the lasser stage 151 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 4: of the match, the end of regulation time. 152 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: By the eighty eighth minute in this case, right. 153 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 4: Yeah, I've bought many of the minutes around that as well. 154 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 4: The difference between those book maker odds and the calculated 155 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 4: odds are enormous. 156 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: At this point. The bookmaker's odds. 157 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 4: Are at one point seventy to two here in the 158 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 4: eighty eighth minute, and the calculated odds are at four 159 00:08:59,040 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 4: point nine zero. 160 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,400 Speaker 1: That's a huge difference. Adam thinks the home team decided 161 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:06,920 Speaker 1: at halftime to toss the match as part of a fix, 162 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: since that's when the odds started to change. But now 163 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 1: sport Radar has to investigate it and the clock is ticking. 164 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 4: We can't rush these things because the right decision is important. 165 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 4: But at the same time we know that we need 166 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 4: to work quickly in these cases, because sir, it can't 167 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 4: be a week or two later that we're telling the 168 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 4: federation about a suspicious matchup. 169 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: Adam told me he's bowled over by the amount of 170 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: match fixing he sees every day. Sport Radar has access 171 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 1: to a vast amount of information. It examined seven million 172 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: individual anonymized bets daily. It can scan odds posted by 173 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,319 Speaker 1: six hundred different bookmakers. They've gotten very good at sniffing 174 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: out problems. Here's Andreas. 175 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 2: We never had one case, which is what you can 176 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:56,319 Speaker 2: call a false positive, in the last seventeen years. We 177 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:58,560 Speaker 2: never had one false positive. 178 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:03,040 Speaker 1: No false positive. In other words, they've never gotten it wrong, 179 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:05,319 Speaker 1: and they look at a lot of different stuff. 180 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 2: I think in sports Rader we provide over sixty different sports, 181 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,800 Speaker 2: some of them I even cannot pronounce the name correctly. Kabuddy, 182 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,880 Speaker 2: Have you heard about Kaboddy? No, you should, It's prominent. 183 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 2: He already in the UK on the TV. 184 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,200 Speaker 1: Kabadi, I later learned, is a very intense version of tag. 185 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:27,440 Speaker 1: Millions of people are watching it and betting on it. 186 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 1: They're also betting on soccer, football, basketball, cricket, you name it. 187 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:36,760 Speaker 1: They're betting on snooker, ping pong, volleyball, and those are 188 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 1: just the games. You can also bet on a dizzying 189 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: variety of moments with in games too, the coin toss, 190 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: the number of penalties or injuries, the color of gatoray 191 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: dumped on the coach when the game ends, and on 192 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:53,319 Speaker 1: and on. Most games are clean, especially in leagues where 193 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: athletes are well paid. Athletes play to win. Refs make 194 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: fair calls, coaches act strategic outcomes are anyone's gas. Gamblers 195 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: can make informed decisions, but nothing is a sure thing 196 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: unless fixers try to make it a sure thing by 197 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: luring refs, athletes, and anyone else in need of a 198 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 1: little extra money. Sport Radars that identified nine hundred and 199 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:23,960 Speaker 1: three suspicious matches across ten sports in seventy six countries 200 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:27,440 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. Andrea says that's just the tip 201 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:28,160 Speaker 1: of the iceberg. 202 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,200 Speaker 2: The real numbers are definitely higher because we have this 203 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,600 Speaker 2: super cautious approach that we only name or list a 204 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 2: match to be manipulated for betting purposes if we one 205 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:42,120 Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent sure, so if you add the 206 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,719 Speaker 2: borderline cases, that we can easily double. 207 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: The number to eighteen hundred, say two thousand. Now, one 208 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: question that raised for me, I think you track five 209 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,840 Speaker 1: hundred thousand games a year, that's less than one percent 210 00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:59,920 Speaker 1: that are getting fixed. So if it's less than one percent, 211 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: is it really a problem. 212 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:07,120 Speaker 2: Yes, it's a problem because first of all, corruption in 213 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:11,360 Speaker 2: itself it's something, it's like a cancer. Yeah, and of 214 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,920 Speaker 2: course we are not naive. Manipulation in sport is as 215 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,840 Speaker 2: old as sport and people always try to get an advantage. 216 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 2: But if you don't take severe action against it, it 217 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:26,479 Speaker 2: will spread. 218 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:37,679 Speaker 1: More. On that spread after the break, you can take 219 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: this to the bank. Match fixes are going to happen. 220 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,280 Speaker 1: None of this surprises Declan Hill, the author of the 221 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: fix and a professor at the University of New Haven. 222 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:52,079 Speaker 3: Around the world is a graveyard of professional sports that 223 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:54,880 Speaker 3: I mean utterly destroyed by match fixing. 224 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:57,760 Speaker 1: And it's been going on for a very long time. 225 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 3: Back in the day in Olympia, in ancient Greece, back 226 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:05,439 Speaker 3: in the seven hundred BC, they started to put statues 227 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 3: outside the stadium and these were really statues of shane 228 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 3: because those statues were built by money taken from athletes 229 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:17,679 Speaker 3: that either cheated or fixed in the Olympics. 230 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:19,280 Speaker 4: You can still see them. 231 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 3: You know, when you go to the ruins of the 232 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 3: Olympia Stadium in modern day Greece. You can still see 233 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 3: where those statues were as you walk into the stadium. 234 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,680 Speaker 1: Match fixing also spread to the Roman Empire's chariot racing 235 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:35,240 Speaker 1: in one of its great cities, Constantinople, and the fans 236 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:36,400 Speaker 1: did not like it. 237 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,320 Speaker 3: They destroyed one third of the city of Constantinople, the 238 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,480 Speaker 3: biggest city in the world at that time. So the 239 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 3: most largest threat to Constantinople in their thousand year history 240 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 3: was when they were fixing the chariot race. 241 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,559 Speaker 1: That's the anger that sports fans will have. Although thousands 242 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:57,199 Speaker 1: of years have passed since then, some things haven't changed. 243 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 5: In twenty twelve, in Italy, soccer is king, and yet 244 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 5: when top professional teams were raided by police in May 245 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 5: on suspicions of match fixing, was anyone really surprised? 246 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 6: Twenty thirteen, your Pole says it's uncovered a criminal syndicate 247 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:20,240 Speaker 6: that attempted to fix more than three hundred and icy matches, 248 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 6: including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League games. 249 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 7: Twenty sixteen, BuzzFeed and the BBC reporting today tennis officials 250 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:32,600 Speaker 7: have failed to deal with widespread corruption, saying at least 251 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:36,320 Speaker 7: sixteen players all ranked in the top fifty have fixed 252 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 7: matches losing for money tennis. 253 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: Even tennis is a commonly fixed sport. Wimbledon and other 254 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:47,240 Speaker 1: high profile tournaments have been scarred by investigations of match fixing. 255 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: Fixers have even tried to get to the top of 256 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: the sport. Superstar Novak Djokovic that fixers unsuccessfully approached him 257 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: in the past. 258 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 2: Somebody may call it an opportunity. 259 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 3: I call it a for me, that's an act of 260 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 3: on sportsmanship or crime in sports. 261 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: Honestly, soccer remains the motherload of match fixing, though so 262 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: many matches have been fixed that I can't describe them 263 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:16,120 Speaker 1: all here, But consider this. In twenty eighteen, Albania's leading 264 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:19,760 Speaker 1: soccer team was banned from competition for a decade after 265 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: being accused of intentionally losing games they were favored to win. 266 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:28,000 Speaker 1: The entire team officials investigating the scandal received death threats. 267 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:32,240 Speaker 1: A few years later, corruption also surfaced in Colombia. 268 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 8: The soccer Championship has been postponed over accusations of match fixing, 269 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 8: with some players receiving death threats. Reuters reports and investigation 270 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,600 Speaker 8: is underway while the championship final for Colombia's second Division 271 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 8: soccer league is delayed. 272 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: It's not always outsiders who are rigging games, it's the 273 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:55,440 Speaker 1: teams themselves. Coaches sometimes intentionally fold, a practice known as 274 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:58,760 Speaker 1: tanking to get a better chance at securing top draft 275 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 1: picks the following season. For example, Brian Flores, a former 276 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins coach, alleges in a lawsuit that the team's 277 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: owners offered him one hundred thousand dollars for each game 278 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,760 Speaker 1: he tanked. The Dolphins have denied the charges, but tanking 279 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: allegations are hardly new. 280 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 3: So many teams, many franchises in American professional sports, have 281 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 3: deliberately gone out to lose games so that they will 282 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 3: get top ranked athletes the next season. They call it 283 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 3: the process, and I'm telling you, as an athlete, that 284 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 3: is a huge insult, and that is a massive open 285 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 3: door to corruption. 286 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,480 Speaker 1: Corruption like match fixing. Now, I know people get into 287 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: heated debates about whether tanking counts as match fixing, but 288 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:47,880 Speaker 1: I think there's no question that a gambler who knows 289 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 1: a game will be tanked can have a huge payday 290 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: regardless unmistakable forms of match fixing. You know where points 291 00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: are shaved, where an athlete intentionally draws a fall. That 292 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: kind of stuff is ubiquitous. 293 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:06,639 Speaker 3: Globalization has hit match fixing, and so now you have 294 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:13,920 Speaker 3: this multi billion dollar, trillion dollar sports gambling market flowing 295 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 3: all over the world, flowing into these sixty thousand sports events, 296 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 3: single sports event a day. And whereas five years ago, 297 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,200 Speaker 3: ten years ago, it wasn't worth anyone's while to fix 298 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:29,080 Speaker 3: Ugandan soccer, or Kazakhstan basketball, or Russian table tennis or 299 00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 3: American NC DOUBLEA stuff, it is now the. 300 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: NC DOUBLEA college sports. 301 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:39,040 Speaker 3: Really, if you needed to design a league that would 302 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,840 Speaker 3: incentive by corruption, it would be very difficult not to 303 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:44,760 Speaker 3: do better than the NC DOUBLA. I mean, they don't 304 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,240 Speaker 3: get paid, A few of them get their image rights, 305 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 3: some of them get scholarships, but those scholarships are in 306 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 3: most cases instantly voided if they get injured. This is 307 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:55,760 Speaker 3: a recipe for disaster. 308 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,480 Speaker 1: Andreas and his sport Radar investigators are familiar with these 309 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: kinds of disasters because they found it's not just unpaid 310 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,159 Speaker 1: athletes who are vulnerable, but also underpaid athletes who are 311 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,360 Speaker 1: also easy marks. And it's not just the athletes, coaches 312 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,640 Speaker 1: and referees are targets too. That's actually part of sport 313 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: Radar's origin story. Before Andreas joined the company, he worked 314 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,719 Speaker 1: in business development for one of the big German soccer leagues. 315 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,480 Speaker 1: That all changed after a local, poorly paid soccer ref 316 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,160 Speaker 1: was caught fixing games in two thousand and five. 317 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:31,440 Speaker 2: Out of a sudden, the scandal popped up in the 318 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,560 Speaker 2: media and we say, we from German soccer, we were 319 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,439 Speaker 2: caught of God, we didn't understand betting at all. We 320 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,880 Speaker 2: didn't understand a match fixing and it was one year 321 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:46,840 Speaker 2: prayer to the World Cup in Germany, so time wise, 322 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 2: you can imagine worst case scenario. 323 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:52,200 Speaker 1: When the scandal broke, everyone turned to Andreas to figure 324 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: out what happened. He didn't know, so we enlisted a mathematician, 325 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 1: an entrepreneur named Carston Kerl. What made Carston ideal His 326 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,479 Speaker 1: little company sold sports statistics and betting lines globally. Some 327 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: of his clients bookies, had spotted suspicious wagers before the 328 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,800 Speaker 1: scandal erupted and had stopped taking bets. That's when Carston 329 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,120 Speaker 1: realized the same data he used to track betting could 330 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:20,880 Speaker 1: also track match fixing. Andreas went to work for Carston 331 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: and built the investigative team they have now. For his part, 332 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: Carson had seen up close how fraud had turned German 333 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,760 Speaker 1: soccer on its head, and he told me he wanted 334 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,920 Speaker 1: to take on match fixing for the same reasons Andreas did. 335 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,840 Speaker 9: This was pure panic. The whole league was in panic. 336 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,639 Speaker 9: This is an ethical thing on one side. On the 337 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:43,919 Speaker 9: other side, it's a business thing. If we are in 338 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 9: the business of sports betting, and if people don't believe 339 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 9: that this is a fair play and fair match, sports 340 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 9: betting will not exist and sport will not exist. 341 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,439 Speaker 1: Carston's point, trust is everything. If fans lose faith the 342 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:02,560 Speaker 1: competitions are honest, they'll lose faith in entire sports preventing. 343 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: That is what motivated Carston. His company eventually became sport Radar, 344 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: a data harvesting juggernaut that now boasts such high profile 345 00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:15,120 Speaker 1: investors as Michael Jordan and Mark Cuban. Other companies now 346 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,640 Speaker 1: offer a similar service, but sport Radar, which has been 347 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:22,199 Speaker 1: in business longer, employees about three thousand people and has 348 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:28,040 Speaker 1: partnered with major sports brands, is the gold standard. Sport 349 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: Radar's timing in the early two thousands was almost perfect. 350 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,720 Speaker 1: Tracking match fixing was just the company side business. Its 351 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 1: core business offering data to gamblers, began riding the sports 352 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,719 Speaker 1: betting boom, sweeping across Europe and especially the UK. At 353 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:47,959 Speaker 1: the same time, match fixing grew alongside that boom. Sport 354 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:52,520 Speaker 1: Radar estimates conservatively that match fixers hauled in profits of 355 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 1: about one hundred and seventy seven million dollars last year. 356 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: Maybe bank robbers in America are in the wrong business. 357 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 1: They only grabbed a fraction of that amount annually. Bank 358 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:08,160 Speaker 1: robbers match fixers. I've always found criminals interesting. They sow 359 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,520 Speaker 1: chaos and break rules. I found the people who hunt 360 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,320 Speaker 1: them down fascinating too. In the best cases, they're out 361 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 1: to restore order and fairness. I wanted to reach out 362 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,440 Speaker 1: to some of the good guys, but investigators in the 363 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,720 Speaker 1: UK wouldn't speak with me. I'm back at home. The 364 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 1: FBI took my call. Sport Radar partners with them too. 365 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 1: When the Supreme Court deregulated sports gambling in twenty eighteen, 366 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,240 Speaker 1: the FBI was alarmed, so that bureau created a new 367 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: unit dedicated to unearthing corruption in sports. Aaron Omahen is 368 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,320 Speaker 1: an FBI analyst who tracks match fixing. 369 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 10: The image of what match fixing is has sort of 370 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,200 Speaker 10: changed over time. The ability to bet has become much 371 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 10: more granular insofar as you can bet if the next 372 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 10: play in an NFL game is going to be a 373 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,960 Speaker 10: pass or a run, one might think, well, I'm. 374 00:21:58,800 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: Not throwing the game. 375 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 10: I'm only throwing a play and that doesn't necessarily impact 376 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:04,680 Speaker 10: the final outcome of the game. 377 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,040 Speaker 1: She and others at the FBI think it's inevitable that 378 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,600 Speaker 1: more match fixing will accompany the sports betting boom. No 379 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: one thinks match fixing will ever be wiped out. 380 00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:17,360 Speaker 10: The phrase that we use is disrupt and dismantle. So 381 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:20,760 Speaker 10: you asked, are we going to eradicate match fixing fully? 382 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,000 Speaker 10: What our goal is is to disrupt and dismantle the 383 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,000 Speaker 10: illegal criminal activity, and in this particular instance, match fixing. 384 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:33,640 Speaker 1: Aaron, like Andreas, believes that match fixing left unchecked will 385 00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:35,760 Speaker 1: poison fans relationship to sports. 386 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 10: I do think it hits close to home because sports 387 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,520 Speaker 10: are sort of something that is on everyone's radar, and 388 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:45,080 Speaker 10: this is something that people care about, and that does 389 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 10: make our job easier when you have something that people 390 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:50,160 Speaker 10: care about, and so it's on people's radar more than 391 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:51,119 Speaker 10: it ever was before. 392 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 1: When we get back from the break more on how 393 00:22:55,040 --> 00:23:03,399 Speaker 1: to catch a thief. So, Tom, where are you taking me? 394 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:03,719 Speaker 2: Right now? 395 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,600 Speaker 11: We'll get out onto the shop floor. So where our 396 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:12,280 Speaker 11: intelligence analysts are researchers and our investigators are conducting investigations 397 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:17,159 Speaker 11: and their collecting information, analyzing that and turn it into intelligence. 398 00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: And this is essentially the room where it happens. Yes, 399 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 1: and you're going to take me. We're going to sort 400 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,879 Speaker 1: of sit on the shoulder of one of the analysts 401 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:27,640 Speaker 1: in real time exactly. Yeah, let's go have a look. 402 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:30,960 Speaker 1: We're back in the control room where the sport Radar 403 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 1: sleuths do some of their handiwork. This time, I'm walking 404 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,760 Speaker 1: around with a man named Tom Harding. He helps oversee 405 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: intelligence gathering and investigations for sport Radar, and he had 406 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,959 Speaker 1: some great stories about his own adventures investigating match fixing. 407 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 1: We'll get to those later, but first Tom wanted me 408 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: to meet another analyst, Jennifer Mellor's. She's an important link 409 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:57,800 Speaker 1: in sport Radars investigative team. Remember when we met Adam 410 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,080 Speaker 1: earlier and learned about how he looks at data to 411 00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:04,119 Speaker 1: find fraud. Well, Jen goes out into cyber space to 412 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: track down the actual people behind a scam. She has 413 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,360 Speaker 1: a lot of questions answer who benefits from an unusual 414 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,400 Speaker 1: bet place during a game? Do the gamblers who want 415 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 1: to have something in common? Do they know a player, coach, 416 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,280 Speaker 1: a referee? Basically, how did they know how to place 417 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 1: that winning bet? When I sat with her, Jen was 418 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: tracking suspicious bets placed on a European soccer player who 419 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:32,200 Speaker 1: managed to draw an unlikely penalty. She had mapped the 420 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: player's personal relationships in a handy little chart on her 421 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,480 Speaker 1: computer screen, So. 422 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:42,160 Speaker 12: Mapping out the people who place those bets and looking 423 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,640 Speaker 12: at the stakes that they put towards that person receiving 424 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,520 Speaker 12: a yellow card, and then the winnings they had as 425 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:50,680 Speaker 12: a result of that. And you can see that there 426 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,119 Speaker 12: was a concentration in that sort of certain area in 427 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 12: Latin America, which coincidentally, the player was also from that area, 428 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 12: so again highlights that there may be a connection there. 429 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,639 Speaker 1: That cut Gen's attention. She started digging into each of 430 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,879 Speaker 1: the individual betters and looking at their social media feeds. 431 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: She was also having fun. 432 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 12: It's just finding information where you don't know where it's 433 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 12: going to be, so it's a bit of the hunt 434 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,439 Speaker 12: to find what is that connection going to be? And 435 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,120 Speaker 12: sometimes you're looking in one direction we think that something 436 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:23,639 Speaker 12: might be found and you can find it in a 437 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,800 Speaker 12: completely random place. So it's just sort of the unknown 438 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,640 Speaker 12: and the dig and the hunt. 439 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: In this particular hunt, Jen found pictures some of the 440 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,919 Speaker 1: gamblers had posted of themselves with the player's trainer and 441 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,080 Speaker 1: coach the cherry on top. Some of the betters didn't 442 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,679 Speaker 1: even try to hide their scheme on social media. 443 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 12: One of the better is posted something on social media 444 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:50,880 Speaker 12: saying easiest money ever until next time. So it's sort 445 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,600 Speaker 12: of alluding to that this is not a one time thing. 446 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 12: It could be potentially part of a wider match fixing 447 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:58,720 Speaker 12: or spot fixing group or syndicate. 448 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,879 Speaker 1: And clearly they're notorried about getting caught because they're joking 449 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,720 Speaker 1: around in a crazy photo that I want to describe further. 450 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,720 Speaker 11: Well, I was going to say, why would they do this? 451 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,320 Speaker 11: Because they think, well, no, that no one's looking lo. 452 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:16,879 Speaker 1: And behold someone's looking. Yeah. Tom has been around before 453 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: coming to sport Radar, he spent eleven years working in 454 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,680 Speaker 1: intelligence for the British Navy and then worked for UK 455 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 1: law enforcement and covert policing and surveillance. He spent a 456 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,920 Speaker 1: lot of time investigating people who think no one's looking well. 457 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,920 Speaker 1: Adam cruises through lots of data, and Jen cruises through cyberspace. 458 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: Tom gets out of the office and he goes to 459 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,760 Speaker 1: the crime scene. So when you go to those matches, 460 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,679 Speaker 1: are you looking to spot the match fixer? Personally? Yes, 461 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,240 Speaker 1: and you're not worried about your own personal safety when 462 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,480 Speaker 1: you set off to do this. 463 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 11: It's something we consider and we risk assessed. 464 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:58,080 Speaker 1: We risk assess. Tom didn't seem scared of anything. He 465 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: was clinical and by the books, well sort of. When 466 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,640 Speaker 1: I pushed him for some war stories, he talked about 467 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: a memorable trip a couple of years back. I can't 468 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: tell you where he went, but he thought a game 469 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,199 Speaker 1: was about to be fixed, so he hopped on a 470 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,560 Speaker 1: flight to another continent and made his way to a 471 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:15,440 Speaker 1: soccer stadium. 472 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:19,159 Speaker 11: In this particular instance, we were in direct communication with 473 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 11: the bet monitoring team, and pretty early on into the match, 474 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,879 Speaker 11: where you get an alert saying something's going on on 475 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,560 Speaker 11: HILT as match is likely to be fixed. 476 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,679 Speaker 1: Tom was already on high alert. He was watching the field, 477 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,199 Speaker 1: were any players interacting with fans or people on the sidelines. 478 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,680 Speaker 1: Maybe they were signaling to someone else in the stadium 479 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,240 Speaker 1: and Tom watched the stands. Was anyone on multiple phones 480 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,080 Speaker 1: instead of watching the game, They might have been monitoring 481 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:51,040 Speaker 1: betting markets. Had anyone arrived at the game unusually late 482 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 1: or left unusually early, they might be there solely to 483 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:55,920 Speaker 1: observe the fix. 484 00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,040 Speaker 11: In this instance, the supicious alerts were saying that this 485 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 11: match is fixed for a particular team to lose by 486 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,680 Speaker 11: three goals or more. Twenty minutes into this match, it's 487 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 11: still nil nil. So shortly after we see this group 488 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:16,159 Speaker 11: of sort of three individuals. One stand up and interact 489 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 11: with the goalkeeper and signal to the goalkeeper. 490 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:21,439 Speaker 1: It's that obvious. 491 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 11: Yeah, so he interacts with the goalkeeper, So yeah, it's 492 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 11: basically concede some goals soon, please. 493 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: Tom took lots of pictures of all of this. They'd 494 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:39,000 Speaker 1: come in handy later, and still fearless, he even approached 495 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 1: the suspected fixers after the game. 496 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 11: It's just a friendly conversation, just say, hey, guys, how's 497 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:44,720 Speaker 11: it going. 498 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: Because you just need to hear the accent. 499 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,560 Speaker 11: The accent, so from that we get a sort of 500 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,160 Speaker 11: a good indication of where they're from. 501 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:55,640 Speaker 3: Right. 502 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 1: I can't tell you what accent he had, but it's 503 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,440 Speaker 1: probably not what you'd expect. Someone back in Europe was 504 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,720 Speaker 1: watching the same game's betting lines. They sent over a 505 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 1: photo of someone they thought might be in on the fix. 506 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,360 Speaker 1: It was the same guy Tom had photographed. They shared 507 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,640 Speaker 1: the information with several law enforcement agencies and then let 508 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 1: them take it from there. Mission accomplished. Then the sport 509 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,720 Speaker 1: Radar folks went to their local pub to celebrate. I'll 510 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: confess to more than a little bit of envy for 511 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: Tom and his adventures, but he's also dealing with a 512 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: tough crowd behind match fixing. Since there's so much money 513 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: to be made, organized crime back some of the biggest scams, 514 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,680 Speaker 1: particularly sport Radar says mobsters from Russia and Eastern Europe. 515 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,280 Speaker 1: Lots of fixes also get hatched in Asia, where betting 516 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: limits are higher and oversight looser. So you might be 517 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,440 Speaker 1: wondering why we spent all this time in London. It's 518 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:51,520 Speaker 1: because everything that's happened in the gambling market there is 519 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,320 Speaker 1: like a teaser for what's already begun to take shape 520 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,480 Speaker 1: in the US. I asked Andreas about this when we 521 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,480 Speaker 1: sat down together to anticipate there'll be more match in 522 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: the US. 523 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, because betting in the US was always there, but 524 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,160 Speaker 2: it was underground. So the opportunities and the temptation for 525 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:13,960 Speaker 2: matrixing was always there. But nowadays, with the opportunities for 526 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 2: match fixes to reach out to vulnerable or open minded 527 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,880 Speaker 2: athletes and official referees, this is increasing. And this is 528 00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:26,680 Speaker 2: part of the globalization and digitalization of our world. 529 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,080 Speaker 1: And it's so much easier because why. 530 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 2: Because we are living now in a digital environment where 531 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:36,640 Speaker 2: there are no local limitations anymore. Because it's so easy 532 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 2: and the markets are so liquid. Betting is so huge 533 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,640 Speaker 2: on all sports and it's increasing. We can start an 534 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,560 Speaker 2: ethical debate whether this is good or not, but prohibition 535 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 2: in this respect will not work because if people want 536 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:51,800 Speaker 2: to bet, they will bet. 537 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,719 Speaker 1: Here. At crash Course, we believe that collisions can be messy, impressive, challenging, 538 00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:14,320 Speaker 1: surprising and always instructive. In today's crash Course, I learned 539 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:17,360 Speaker 1: that match fixing is ubiquitous and the sports and gambling 540 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,240 Speaker 1: industries still don't do enough to corral it. If they're 541 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: serious about cleaning things up, they'll need to be more 542 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: transparent when scams blow up and be much tougher about 543 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 1: penalizing match fixers. Those are lessons that the US will 544 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,200 Speaker 1: have to learn too. What did you learn? We'd love 545 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,480 Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can tweet at the Bloomberg 546 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,560 Speaker 1: Opinion handle at Opinion or at me at Tim O'Brien 547 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,880 Speaker 1: using the hashtag Bloomberg Crash Course. You can also subscribe 548 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: to our show wherever you're listening right now and leave 549 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: us a review. It helps more people find the show. 550 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,800 Speaker 1: This episode was produced by the indispensable Animasaracus and Me. 551 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:58,120 Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Magnus Hendrickson, and we had editing 552 00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,760 Speaker 1: help from Katie Boyce, Jedson Aberg, Jeff Grocott, Mike Nizza, 553 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:07,560 Speaker 1: Samantha Story, and Christine Danden Bilert. Blake Maple says, our 554 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,800 Speaker 1: sound engineering and our original theme song was composed by 555 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,880 Speaker 1: Luis Gara. I'm Tim O'Brien and this has been Crash Course. 556 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,920 Speaker 1: Check your feed for the next episode in our gambling 557 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: series about tribal casinos.