Sports fans got a rare treat on Monday, when they watched an obviously fixed match in the Little League Softball World Series.Here's how it went down. A team from Washington state, representing the Central Washington region, played against a team from North Carolina, representing the Southeast. North Carolina needed a win to secure a spot in the semifinals. The Washington team, which had already clinched a berth, benched a number of starters, and the players who did take the field bunted each time they were up to bat. North Carolina easily won, 8-0, which ensured its advancement to the semifinals—but it came at the expense of a third team in their pool, Central Iowa.When it comes to match-fixing, most people think of mafiosi arranging score lines and then wagering on a known outcome in order to maximize gambling profit, something called a "betting fix." What Washington and North Carolina attempted is an example of another kind of fix: the "sporting fix" or "arranged fix."In his book The Insider's Guide to Match-Fixing in Football, Declan Hill, a leading expert on the subject, defines arranged fixes as incidents "when corruptors manipulate a [game] to ensure that one team wins or draws the match." They usually happen when one team has nothing to play for while the opposing team stands to benefit from a certain outcome—a scenario that typically occurs late in the season. For example, imagine there's one game left in the English Premier League. Team A has already secured a tenth-place finish, and winning or losing won't change that. Team B, however, is in danger of relegation. Team A could lose to Team B on purpose and then return the favor next season, when they're both still safely in the league.What happened when the Washington team played North Carolina was a bit different. The only team Iowa lost to in pool play was Washington, and Central Iowa Little League president Chris Chadd alleges that Washington lost in order to avoid a rematch later in the tournament. Regardless of motive, though, this was still a fixed game.How often arranged fixes occur is hard to say, but they happen more often than many people realize. Last month, Harrison Chase, a Harvard researcher, published a fascinating statistical analysis of Italy's Serie B that suggests this kind of fixing had been widespread for years during the division's last week of match play. Italy has well-established problems with match-fixing, but they tend to look a bit different than the late-season arrangements Chase focused on. The famous 2006 scandal, for example, involved corrupt referees and large sums of money.One reason we don't hear about arranged fixes more often is that they're hard to detect, which isn't always the case with betting fixes. Companies monitoring odds movements sometimes spot betting fixes, because fixers occasionally bet exorbitant amounts on otherwise unnoteworthy games. When monitoring companies do spot arranged fixes, it almost always comes down to one thing: greed. Disgruntled players who are in on the arranged fix—and perhaps reluctant to take the risk without a more substantial, immediate reward—bet on their own match.Just such a scenario scandalized the sport of handball earlier this year. Nikola Karabatic, a French handball superstar playing for league champion Montpellier, allegedly bet on a match his team had arranged with Cesson, which was fighting relegation. Surprisingly, Montpellier lost. Even so, it's likely nobody would have suspected foul play, except that someone bet entirely too much money on a game bookies considered to be fairly pedestrian. Karabatic's trial began in France in July.The police haven't arrested anyone in the softball scandal, and I don't expect to see any 13-year-olds in custody. After appealing to Little League International, the sport's governing body, Iowa received a consolation of sorts. If you believe Chadd, Washington had hoped to avoid Iowa in the later rounds. Now the two teams will play each other in a one-game playoff. The winner will advance to the semifinals.Match-fixing is an act that requires subtlety. If your players have mastered the art, it might take a Harvard statistician to discover it. If your players are still in middle school, however, arranging a fix might be as difficult to pull off as a poorly disguised bunt.Update: Karma had a strong showing in the playoff game on Tuesday, as Central Iowa defeated Washington, 3-2, to advance to the World Series semifinals.
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