last week<\/a>, the yellow card in question is believed to be the one midfielder Granit Xhaka picked up in the 85th minute against Leeds, when he appeared to inexplicably time-waste over a free kick.<\/p>\nThe incident jarred viewers because Arsenal was leading 4-1 at the time and there was no strategic reason to waste time.<\/p>\n
Several gamblers took to Twitter immediately after the game to highlight that around $65,000 had been matched suddenly on the Betfair betting exchange shortly before the booking, plunging the odds from 9\/4 to 4\/5.<\/strong><\/p>\nBut if there was a betting conspiracy, it went beyond the Betfair markets, and the stakes were even higher.<\/p>\n
Questions Over Manipulated Market<\/strong><\/h2>\nAccording to emails seen by The Athletic<\/em>, the unnamed bookmaker received \u201cmultiple bets\u201d in bitcoin that would have yielded more than $1 million in winnings had the bookmaker not frozen the market. The operator\u2019s internal investigation concluded the market may have been subject to manipulation.<\/p>\n\n
English football\u2019s governing body, the Football Association, is understood to be looking into the situation but has yet to launch a formal investigation. However, FA sources told The Times<\/em> that there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Xhaka or any other Arsenal player.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe Swiss midfielder is something of a card magnet, having been either booked or sent off in more than a quarter of all games during his five-year Arsenal career. He has been suspended for Arsenal\u2019s past two games after a red card in the Carabao Cup semi-final, first leg, against Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Spot-Fixing Rare<\/strong><\/h2>\nHowever, any investigation will have to examine whether an incidence of \u201cspot-fixing\u201d could have occurred. Spot betting describes speculation on the minutiae of a game, rather than the outright result \u2014 the number of cards or corners, for example.<\/p>\n
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Critics say it encourages corruption because it makes it easier for individual athletes to manipulate small aspects of a game in a way that is difficult to detect. However, spot-fixing is almost unheard of in elite soccer, because stratospheric wages remove any financial incentive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There have been some examples in cricket, where wages are lower. In 2010, Pakistani players Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were determined to have intentionally bowled no-balls. That was during a tour of England for the benefit of a gambling syndicate involving Pakistan captain Salman Butt. All three men were handed lengthy bans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least $420,000 was placed on an Arsenal player receiving a yellow card in the last ten minutes of a game earlier this season via a single bookmaker, according to a report from The Athletic. The suspicious bets prompted the operator to flag the incident to the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA). As first reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":199002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Focus on Xhaka Yellow Card as Bookie Reports $420k in Suspicious Bets<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n