Yeah agreed but you really think it could be done for, say £200k, which is what they are intimating is the maximum amount won on an individual game. This is the general problem with allegations of match fixing across sports. The general press and, often, prosecutors and judges are so uneducated about gambling that they see some spots of evidence but are completely unaware about the actual logistics of what it would take to put something like this together and make actually make a profit from it. The cricket spot fixing scandal was a great case in point. It is literally impossible to bet on a specific ball being a no ball in India or anywhere else and if it is possible then the max bet you would ever get on it would be about £200 so there is nobody running around paying cricketers bribes of £10k+ to bowl a no ball.....well except for fake reporters that is. Is there more subtle fixing going on? Absolutely and there are huge markets for other things that bowlers, for example, can subtly fix but the whole spot fixing idea was just absolute BS. It created a whole stir about a problem that was effectively manufactured by a newspaper reporter and, in the meantime, diverted attention and resources away from the real villains simply because what they do is and was much more complicated and difficult to understand.
Similarly with football it makes good headlines to talk about a CL game in England having been fixed but in reality it is fairly unlikely, certainly in the group stages or later because it would cost £100's of thousands to do and to get bets on to win those kinds of sums invariably creates a big paper trail. Meanwhile most days there are very, very minor games where you could get £10-15k on easily in Asia and they are played in front of 100 people. Today the asian books are betting on 2 prem u21 games, a Colombian game and a handful of games in a Dutch u21 league. Not to mention a glamour tie in the egyptian premier league. If you were fixing a game which one would you choose? even i probably have the bankroll to make fixing an egyptian prem league game +EV!
Isn't the idea that you are a shady bookie, bribe a team to lose then offer a bigger price than all your competitors on that team? If you are the standout price as a bookie, you can take a lot of money quickly surely? You don't have to try and get on yourself.
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