UK bookmakers stop taking World Cup man of the match bets due to scam fear
It’s been reported that major bookmakers have concerns the awards were being fixed.
UK.- Major British bookmakers have stopped or restricted betting markets on man of the match awards in the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar due to fears they are being fixed. Sky Bet and William Hill have withdrawn the man of the match market from their websites, while bet365 is accepting only single bets rather than accumulators.
The decision was triggered by fears that tipsters were fixing the awards. World Cup man of the match awards are voted on by the public via the FIFA website. However, the appearance of several unexpected winners, including Kevin De Bruyne and Welsh captain Gareth Bale, has led to fears that voting is being manipulated.
The Daily Mail says it has seen evidence that social media tipsters were encouraging their followers, which can number tens of thousands, to vote for players they had placed bets on to win. Some urged people to break FIFA’s one-vote-per-person limit, showing how to circumvent the restriction and place multiple votes. Sportsmail suggests this is the reason the man of the match market doubled in value from around £100,000 to £200,000 a match last week.
After De Bruyne was named man of the match after Belgium’s 1-0 win over Canada, he said: “I don’t think I played a great game and don’t know why I got the (award). Maybe it’s because of my name.”
The Mail reports that bookmakers were particularly suspicious after Cristiano Ronaldo won the award in Portugal’s 3-2 win over Ghana because of a large number of accumulator bets, some of which would have resulted in pay-outs of up to £1.5m if Neymar was also named man of the match in Brazil vs Serbia later the same day.
Sportsmail claims to have seen a message from a betting tipster who boasted of having logged 70 votes for Neymar, although his plans failed as Richarlison won the award after Neymar was injured.
A Sky Bet spokesperson said: “We continually monitor the performance of all of our markets and on this occasion made a trading decision to pull this particular market.”
FIFA is reportedly aware of the issue but has not taken any official action. Officials reportedly monitor the voting dashboard to ensure results tally with what happens in matches. FIFA has not confirmed whether it intervened in any of the votes, and, in particular, whether it overruled votes for Neymar in Brazil vs Serbia.
In Lithuania, the Gambling Supervisory Authority has warned the gambling operator Top Sport UAB over its sponsorship of a World Cup prediction game. It said that the game, at Topikas.lt, broke the country’s ban on the promotion of gambling.
The regulator noted that the website, which invites players to predict the results of matches in the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar, heavily featured Top Sport branding, included clickable banners that linked to Top Sport’s website and also that the Topikas game had similarities with Top Sport’s betting offering.
See also: Belgian lottery suspends sports gambling ads during World Cup
