Match-fixing is a crime committed by third parties, not by betting houses, says expert.

Last Tuesday (14), the Public Ministry of Goiás carried out an operation concerning the alleged manipulation of results in the Brazilian Football Championship's Serie B. Named Penalidade Máxima, the investigation has already revealed that – at the end of last year – a criminal group acted in at least three matches of the second division of the Brasileirão. The suspicion is that the group allegedly recruited athletes to commit penalties or fouls, acting according to bets made by the group, for example. If the demands were met, the players would receive part of the winnings: R$ 150 for each correct bet. The amounts involved exceed R$ 600.

According to lawyer Filipe Senna – partner at Jantalia Advogados and specialist in Gaming Law – "the suspicions of match-fixing raise important questions about the sports betting market in Brazil."

“The first of these reflections concerns the cause of these manipulations: who commits them? Sports betting companies are commonly pointed to as match-fixers, but this is not true. The manipulations are mainly committed by third parties who are not directly linked to these companies – nor to the sporting event itself, the athletes, the officials, or other people connected to the event – ​​to alter results and thus profit from pre-determined sports bets.”

The expert explains that "the second point refers to the need for regulation of the sports betting sector in Brazil."

"With this regulation, situations of manipulation would tend to become less frequent – ​​and thus there would also be important protection both for betting houses, which are victims of these manipulations and suffer losses because of it, and for the consumer, the average bettor, who is also harmed in situations where the result is rigged by a third party external to the event, through interference."

(*) Filipe Senna, partner at Jantalia Advogados; lawyer specializing in Gaming Law, Cooperative Law and Higher Courts. The article was published in the Jurid Journal.