Betting on sports has always attracted a lot of charlatans. The reason is banal – man’s belief in easy money. Beginner gamblers dream of increasing their capital quickly and easily, while great gamblers want to get their hands on that capital and pass themselves off as a gold mine. In this article I will tell you exactly what tricks sports betting scammers use and how beginners can avoid getting caught in the net at every turn.
1. Selling match-fixing… Allegedly
Let’s start with the most widespread and most worn-out of all scams. It is, of course, the sale of “match-fixing”. What makes this scheme successful is that matches rigged in sports are really abundant: news about them is published every now and then on sports websites and Rating Poker.
And after reading the news about exposing a betting network, a player thinks how great it would be to possess this information and bet large sums of money at no risk. After all, you know the outcome or even the exact score of the match in advance! The only thing left for the aspiring millionaire is to find people who have information about match-fixing and are willing to sell it.
Does match-fixing exist?
Although they do exist, only a few can enter the match-fixing business. Typically, they are professional punters, high rollers who will be contacted by a match fixer or a match fixer looking for a partner with a high stakes account. You need a lot of capital investment in this business. By the way, you can read about this in our interview with match-fixing organizers in tennis.
Where does our future millionaire go? To the Internet. There are hundreds of websites selling information about alleged match-fixing. If you use social networks or you are a member of a betting and sports betting community, you do not even need to look for anything: You will be found and offered to buy information about a fix-rate. Sometimes even in bulk!
However, it is all one big scam. Let’s look at why this is the case.
Firstly, a very narrow circle of people know until the last minute that the match will go according to a predetermined scenario. They are 1) the organiser of the show (or a group of organisers), 2) the customer who bought the information or ordered the match and is going to bet, and 3) the athlete (or athletes).
Why? Match-fixing events are often organised in small competitions and not all betting shops accept bets on such events. It may happen that only a couple or three bookmakers have the match in their line-up.
How will they react to the fact that dozens of accounts, not to mention newly registered ones, will be flooded with bets on the same outcome? The answer is obvious – bookmakers will take the event off the line, and bets can be calculated as refunds.
The less people know about a rigged match, the more likely it is that the organizers themselves can make money on the match.
Leaking information is possible and in fact happens a lot, but usually just before the match, when the customer has already bet, after which someone – an informer or an athlete – leaks the information.
This information is first spread offline among “insiders” (and even if it gets on the internet, you can’t tell if the information you are being sold belongs to). Secondly, the odds on a real contractual outcome will go down drastically because of the prorogation after it has been leaked.
What tricks do scammers use to convince players that their information is true? I’ve been in the sports betting and prediction business for a very long time, and the scam schemes for selling “match-fixing” games have not changed over the years.
Here are 4 rules to keep you safe from such scams as “match-fixing”:
Remember one simple rule as a dogma: there is no match-fixing information on the internet! It is just a fairy tale and trying to make it true will cost you money in the end.
If you happen to bet money on a pseudo match, you pay nothing even if you win. You just got lucky! If you were given information on the exact score of a football match, you took a gamble and bet money on it and miraculously won, it means only one thing: Today is your day! Don’t get hooked in any way. And in a good way, just don’t communicate with the scammer!
Don’t make checks on “informants”. Most of the time, of course, they will fail miserably with their “match-fixing”, but you might get their lucky day and doubts might creep into your head. But then again, it’s always just a happy accident. They just got lucky!
If you decide to enter into a discussion, ask the scammer one simple question: “Why are you sitting in a social network trying to sell your information for a measly 10 euros, instead of hustling and borrowing as much money as possible from friends and acquaintances to put more yourself or find a big client? Almost always they have nothing to answer for.
2. Selling forecasts
Another primitive and yet effective scam is equally popular. It is the selling of sports forecasts. Newbies believe in the belief that there are people who can produce forecasts of amazing accuracy and are willing to share their predictions for money. There are two sub schemes to be distinguished here: pre-paid sales and post-paid sales.
Selling pre-paid sports forecasts
You pay money, you get a fresh forecast. A forecaster can use a variety of tricks to prove his success. First of all, it is fake statistics on websites and social networks. All of these resources have one thing in common: closed comments. That is why those who have bought the forecasts cannot openly leave their feedback. Moderators post only rare positive comments and a person who meets such site or community for the first time might fell for the trick. Trust me: Almost 100% of the real feedback from those who have paid for a forecast is negative!
In social networks scammers actively use services for clicking, reposting and, of course, subscribers, in order to entice customers. After all, since there are a lot of people in the group, since the posts are liked and reposted, it makes sense. However, all of this is artificial, with the help of special programmes and services.
Selling predictions on a post-payment basis
The difference is that they won’t ask you for money straight away, but after you win the bet. It is credible, but don’t be fooled! The so-called trader doesn’t care if you lose your money on a bet he spent 5 minutes in the toilet selecting, and if you are lucky with that bet, you have to give some of your winnings back. Better bet at random of your own choosing: the result is the same, but you will lose less because you won’t have to pay for predictions.
If you lose your money, this prognosticator will never give you back your bet, otherwise he’d be living in the nearest junkyard a long time ago.
As in the case of match-fixing, cleverer “cappers” give different people different outcomes for the same sporting event, so that some of their “customers” will be satisfied and share their winnings with the scammers, whatever the outcome.
Let me dispel some myths about selling predictions:
If people really had a claimed pass rate of 70%, 80% or even 95% on average odds, they would have been billionaires long ago. Ask them a question about that. They’ll tell you a tale about how evil and conniving bookmakers all cut their maximum bet size to ridiculous amounts. Have you ever heard of Sbobet, Pinnacle Sports or Betfair?
It is not uncommon for bettors to pose as employees of a popular bookmaker’s office. Of course, this is a lie. Although even if it were true, as an experienced gambler I do not know what it would mean. Apparently, in their mind, all bookmakers’ employees are sports prediction experts and are able to predict the outcomes of matches better than anyone else, which of course is not the case. However, this technique does work on novice players, since it is used. But such statements do not cause anything but laughter.
All the “props” used by seasoned charlatans, like screenshots of big winnings, “drawn” statistics on websites and in pubs, video-recorded trips to the office for a win, are not a proof that these people play for a profit on the distance. They are happy to show you their good fortunes and keep quiet about their failures. And some have a blind faith in something that is not really there.
3. Bookmaker account promotion
Bookmaker account promotion has recently become a very popular sports betting scam scheme. It involves giving another person access to your betting account. Your money is in the account, and the job of the promoter is to maximise this amount. This should either last for a certain amount of time, or up to a certain amount – it doesn’t matter.
Once the amount is fixed, you need to share part of the profit with whoever made that profit. This is usually 50% of the net winnings. It would seem that everything is fair. However, when the easy money lover doesn’t do well, he will simply lose all your money. And, of course, no one will pay you back.
In fact, that is how it happens in most cases, otherwise these people would not do this kind of nonsense, and untwist their accounts. But the reality is that they do not want to risk their money or they have nothing to risk – everything is lost.
For one successful promotion, for which the scammer will be paid handsomely, he has nine poor people who had 1000 EUR on their balance before the promotion and 0.00 RUB after the promotion. That’s the sad maths. So in any case, do not trust access to your account to strangers, no matter what fairy tales they tell you!
It won’t do any good. And if you want to complain, you will be banned, if, of course, you can even leave a comment.
4. A prediction or match-fixing scam
Another scam is as convoluted as possible: a scammer invites a group of people to pool their money to buy a forecast from a known scammer in the field.
Above we explained why you should not buy a forecast in principle. But the point here is that not everyone can afford buying the forecasts of a famous person or site alone because they are too expensive, so this scam is organized. A fraudster may declare any intentions, but the only goal is to pocket the money and get lost or offer his personal forecast as a purchased one.
Often the organizer of the fold is the one whose forecasts he offers to buy, thus attracting customers to his “business”.
5. Selling sports betting software
There are many programmes that supposedly help players in betting. For example, Futanaliz. These programs are not harmful in themselves, but they are not useful either, as they provide the same result as the average gambler can provide with his own head.
It is foolish to assume that there is an automatic algorithm that miraculously produces profitable bets over a distance. However, the creators of such software assure gamblers of the opposite, and an entire industry of betting software production and sales has developed as a result. And it costs a lot of software!
The Internet is full of advertising on the subject, and social networks are operating a bunch of spammers offering to buy a miracle program from them. These can be both the creators of software, and wishing to make money on referral program, receiving a percentage of each sale. It can also be frustrated software buyers who are disappointed with the results and want to get back at least part of the wasted money.
Better to burn a lot of money and get a gorgeous avatar photo instead of giving that money away for useless rubbish.
That’s actually all the most popular betting scams. Share your own experiences with scammers in this area in the comments. I hope this material will help novice gamblers to avoid scams.
Conclusion
There are quite a few people online who are involved in sports betting scams. There are all kinds of scam schemes – match-fixing, pay-per-view forecasts, account promotion, sports betting software with a 100% passability and a hoarding on pay-per-view services.
Using these methods is not recommended, there is a high risk of losing all available money. The ideal betting option is small bets on interesting matches to watch the game with more enthusiasm and excitement.