Coming from you that's laughable. I hope the CIA or Zionists catch up with you, you're of little use to wider society. Better get that tinfoil hat on.

Do you feel better now?

Looks like Martin Standee Eastcoast is up to his old tricks on here & the FC board, trying to antagonise other users & contributing nothing.

Obviously the two previous bans he's had didn't mean anything. A repeat offender.

No problems. I've been meaning to turf a few people for a bit. And this is an interesting topic to discuss.

And before I cop a ton of criticism for not allowing folk to vent their spleen - there are only two such threads. And this isn't one of them.

Is there criminality in sports betting? Given that there is criminality in every aspect of life that involves money - most certainly yes.

Is sport routinely and systemically rigged? Unlikely.

It's obviously significantly harder to rig a sport like football or rugby because of the team nature of the game. You'd have to bribe most of the team. Even if you could get to the referee it's still difficult to definitely rig a game. Plus of course you've got footballers (and some Union players) who are paid so much it's not worth the risk of taking a bribe.

Where I think it's more likely is in sports like tennis, cricket, athletics and maybe golf. Very popular, worldwide sports that attract large amounts of betting money and you've got much more scope for affecting a result (or a certain situation as with spot betting). I get the feeling we've only just scratched the surface in discovering corruption with betting or drug taking in these sports.

you're an imbecilic dictator, singlehandedly killed The Sin Bin, there's little wonder it's only you that posts regularly.

To rig an entire competition you wouldn't use players. It's simply not feasible.

However, it's ENTIRELY feasible to find a dozen officials who will do as they are told and keep their mouths shut.

Like I said - it's BAD BUSINESS not to rig a competition if you can. The potential profits are mind-boggling.

It's [itechnically[/i feasible, but highly unlikely; in much the same way that a decade spanning, worldwide, multi-national and multi-agency conspiracy to affect all world events is technically feasible, but highly unlikely. People talk - and the more of them involved in any kind of scam, the less likely it remains a secret. Not to mention the algorithms, analysis and technical wizardry employed by large bookmakers, which can spot unusual patterns or behaviour well before any human has to.

There will be incidents of malfeasance - but not on the scale you're alluding to and certainly not in a way that rigs the outcome of a league or competition.

That said - I did see Michael Carter give the new ref a Twix and a bottle of Lucozade before we played Warrington at the weekend...