Are Professional Sports Rigged? (All You Need To Know!)

Last Updated on October 12, 2023 by Alex PT

Professional sports are not systematically rigged. Rigging would undermine the integrity of competitions. While isolated incidents of match-fixing or cheating occur, sports organizations have rigorous rules, regulations, and oversight to maintain fairness and transparency.

Are Professional Sports Rigged?

Professional sports are not inherently rigged, and the idea of widespread rigging goes against the fundamental principles of fair competition and integrity that underpin the sports industry. However, it’s essential to understand the nuances and factors related to this topic:

1. Regulations and Oversight:
   • Professional sports leagues and governing bodies have strict regulations in place to ensure the fairness and integrity of their competitions. These rules cover everything from doping control to match-fixing prevention.
2. Match-Fixing:
   • While professional sports are not rigged, isolated incidents of match-fixing have occurred in the past. These cases usually involve a small number of individuals attempting to manipulate the outcome of a game for personal gain.
   • Authorities take match-fixing seriously and employ investigative measures to detect and prevent it.
3. Transparency and Accountability:
   • Sports organizations are accountable for maintaining transparency and addressing any issues related to match-fixing or corruption promptly.
   • Measures such as video technology (e.g., VAR in soccer) have been introduced to enhance the accuracy of decisions and reduce the possibility of errors or manipulation.
4. Fair Play and Competition:
   • The essence of professional sports is fair competition. Fans, sponsors, and governing bodies rely on the integrity of the competitions for the industry’s success.
   • Rigging undermines the credibility of the sport and erodes public trust, which can have significant financial and reputational consequences for the sport and those involved.
5. Doping and Cheating:
   • While rigging primarily refers to match-fixing, cheating through doping or other means has been a concern in sports. Organizations like the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) enforce strict anti-doping regulations to ensure fair play.
6. Investigations and Sanctions:
   • Sports organizations, law enforcement agencies, and anti-corruption units conduct investigations into potential violations of sports regulations. Sanctions can include fines, suspensions, and even criminal charges.
7. Media and Public Scrutiny:
   • The media and the public play a significant role in monitoring and exposing potential wrongdoing in sports. This external scrutiny often serves as a deterrent against rigging.
8. Education and Prevention:
   • Sports organizations invest in education and prevention programs to raise awareness among athletes, officials, and stakeholders about the importance of maintaining the integrity of the sport.

Sports That Are Easiest To Rig

Check out the following sports that have been rigged over the years. 

1. WWE

This is the most obvious rigged sport of all time, it is very easy to rig a WWE game because most times before the match even starts, the people at the head of the panel already know who would win. The fighters on the stage or in the ring are just actors. It isn’t technically a sport because of the way that the game is. The insiders here can turn the betting market to their best interest by weighing the game. Many things have happened over the years so much so that when the game is done, betting sites tend to lose a lot of money to the officials of the game, this is why some of them have stopped adding wrestling to their bookmarks. 

2. Tennis

This should be the slickest game ever to manipulate because no one can figure out if a tennis player plays the ball straight to the net by himself or herself causing them to lose a point. Even when the player makes a faulty serve on purpose, no one would know about it because these things happen all the time. Without a doubt, there is every reason to believe that a tennis match can be rigged just like most sports.

3. Horse Racing

Americans invented gambling, Americans have been gambling since the test of time and so most of the unit sports has betting histories back to about three to four centuries ago. Boxing and baseball have been tied to betting since they were created, and so was horse racing these 3 games are built on gambling and so they are rigged most times to be in the favor of certain people once in a while. The games get rigged from people going ahead to stealing horses or switching them for any other horse that looks just like them and cannot make the race. Different systems have been done, even betting slip scandals. 

4. Hockey 

This is the best game in Canada, it has been in their history for years now and they still play hockey a lot. Americans also do enjoy hockey like the Canadians bug not as much. It is also a sport that can be rigged for betting motives. During a hockey game, you see the goalie miss a clean shot, you don’t know what went wrong, you don’t know if something was wrong, this would go on without being noticed because he could just be having a bad day. 

5. Golf 

The game all depends on inches, missing by an inch and putting the ball in the wrong place without it making the drop in the cup hole doesn’t really mean anything. Just like every other sport, the golfer could decide to move the shot and people would just make a sound about it and it wouldn’t even cause a fuzz. The game could be rigged even with 10k people sitting in the audience watching the game. Any excuse could come up, the excuse of making a bad swing, using the wrong club, and the fans making irrelevant noises. 

6. Football (soccer)

Football is one sport that could be proven hard to rig because a lot of people watch you and when you make obvious mistakes, then your career could be at risk. Most times, it is best to rig a game with one of the best players known by the audience because they could make an excuse and overlook it to be a bad day for him. Small rigging techniques are the missed tackles, dropped passes, fumbles, stupid penalties, and other things that make it look like you are just playing a normal game. 

Are Spots Betting Rigged?

No, sports betting cannot be rigged but most times it is placed against your favor based on the vig. For sport betting companies to gain revenues, they collect their share from the losing let’s. The commission or share that they get from there is called vig. Based on this profit or revenue that they receive, people come out to say that these companies rig the bet, that isn’t true because they just use it to make money. 

How Can Gambling Be Rigged?

Gambling is not a game for the weak but it isn’t a rigged game because most times you lose more than you win. With gambling, you can never get more than the house gets. The house only pays you large amounts once but takes your little amount fast and on a daily basis. 

Conclusion

So far the article has been able to teach us some things that we never really knew about sports. The main reason why sports can be rigged is for gambling objectives.  We’ve reached the closing chapter of this informative article. We hope you were able to find good resources in your quest to know if professional sports are rigged. If you have any questions or comments about the article topic, don’t hesitate to contact us. Thanks

References:

https://www.dglobe.com/sports/doug-wolter-is-sports-rigged-finally-an-explanation-that-makes-sense
https://www.rookieroad.com/sports-articles/are-professional-sports-rigged-3209191/