The question that many people have asked for years: Are Professional Sports Rigged?

In the United States Professional Sports such as Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, and Mixed Martial Arts have become companies that are making millions of dollars.

In 2013 the National Football League will profit around 9 billion dollars and the National Basketball Association will profit around 5 billion dollars.  The Major League Baseball Association also is posting over 8 billion dollars in revenues for 2013 and is estimating that each team in the league is valued at around 744 million dollars.  Other leagues like the National Hockey League posted an expected 2.4 billion dollar profit even with the lockout in 2013 and the average team value is estimated at 413 million dollars. The United Fighting Championship Company reported in 2012 that the revenues for the company stood at around 480 million dollars.

How to these companies make such huge profits and how it could relate to games being rigged

Profits are made by large television contracts to broadcast games and the selling of commercials on these television stations. Profits are also made by the sales of merchandise for the leagues, and live game ticket sales. In 2012 the average commercial for the Super Bowl was 3.5 million dollars for a 30 second commercial. This year the estimate is 4 million dollars for a 30 second commercial

So here is an unproven theory of how the Super Bowl could be rigged by an advertising company paying the NFL to have a particular team or teams make it to the Super Bowl based on how that agency or company would want to view the commercial. Sounds inconceivable but in the past the advertising companies have expressed the dislike in teams that have made it to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl XLVII was viewed by an estimated average of 108.69 million people in the United States, with a record 164.1 million tuning into at least six minutes of the game.

The NBA in 2013 drew nearly 13.1 million viewers per game in the playoffs and championship games.

A one minute commercial ran one million dollars.

In the MLB World Series a commercial ran 450,000 dollars per 30 second commercial.

My outlaw theory is that companies could throw millions of dollars at the professional leagues to get more popular teams to the championship games therefore gaining more viewers.  There is no evidence either way to disprove or prove my theory but it is funny how no professional league will open up any evidence to disprove my theory.

How a Referee or Umpire could rig any sporting game:

In recent years the NFL has moved into the technology age using cameras to review plays with questionable outcomes or plays that a referee may have missed.  However the NFL is the only league that has moved in this direction. The reason for the direction change was because the unpopular calls of the referee in several key games. The fact is however a referee or umpire has the ability to change the outcome in any professional sport or any sport for that matter. There is no evidence that proves or disproves my outlaw theory in this matter.

How Sports Betting could rig any sporting game:

As much as $500 billion is wagered illegally on sporting events in the U.S. each year, by some estimates, almost all in the hands of organized crime. While Las Vegas booked nearly $3 billion in sports wagers in 2012, as much as $500 billion is wagered illegally on sporting events in the U.S. each year, by some estimates. No one really knows the exact amount, because it’s all conducted under the table, with most of the money in the hands of organized crime. In fact, according interviews with former FBI agents, sports gambling may be organized crime’s top moneymaker, followed closely by the loan-sharking activities that haunt losing bettors.  The United States Government has made some efforts to insure sports stay pure from the influence of illegal or legal betting. However there is really no way of proving or disproving that illegal or legal betting does not have an influence over how games could be rigged.

Laws that the Government has established to help illegal gambling or betting:

The 1964 Sports Bribery Act made it a federal crime to bribe a player, coach or referee to alter the outcome of a game. In 2006, Congress also passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Aimed squarely at online poker, this law also works against online sports gamblers, as it “prohibits the acceptance of credit, electronic funds, checks, or the proceeds of other financial transactions, by persons involved in the business of betting or wagering in connection with unlawful Internet gambling.

However even with these laws in place enforcement of illegal gambling and the possibility that it could lead to sports being rigged.

Players throwing games or not playing the game at the level of their abilities:

There are years of evidence that players could have thrown a game, shaved some points. Some famous cases have been made in Baseball that leads to evidence that players could influence the outcome of professional sporting events. Steroid use could enhance a player’s performance also giving a team or player an unfair advantage in the game.  Over 500 professional sports athletes have tested positive for banned substances since 2009 to presently. The number of athletes who abuse anabolic steroids is unknown. Many athletic associations ban their use, including the National Football League.

The Government and Sports:

The federal government’s impact on professional sports is a lot greater than just investigating scandals and conducting Regional governments provide a large amount of funding that is used to build sport facilities, be it paying for a facility or turning over land to a team owner who promises to build a sport arena on public land at no cost to the municipalities. Local governments also grant tax breaks which in some cases include waiving property taxes, or arranging for special deals like “payment in lieu of taxes” or “tax increment financing” which give incentives to sports owners. These kinds of incentives and breaks can be seen in other areas of business in addition to sports. It is typical for municipalities who fund sport venue projects to offer sport franchises favorable leases to encourage teams to come to the region. In some situations, municipalities raise sales, hospitality, car rental and water taxes etc… to raise funds to develop infrastructure such as roads, electric, water lines, and sewer systems for new sport complex projects.recessional hearings. Continuing with the theme of taxes, under a 1988 federal law, taxpayers may deduct 80% of payment for the right to purchase seating, naming rights deals, and/or advertising at a collegiate sports event as a charitable contribution. This law really caters to corporations who will purchase luxury suites, which in turn has lead to a boom in stadium renovations in collegiate athletics with projects that range in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The federal government gives the major professional sport leagues and organizations in America special treatment when it comes to anti-trust laws, but this treatment comes at a cost. It is obvious that these leagues could not operate without this special treatment, and Congress has been known to use that point as leverage, for example, Congress forced Major League Baseball to expand in 1968 and in 1999 by threatening to revoke baseball’s anti-trust status. It is clear that the American sports industries couldn’t be what they are today without government, but is all of the special treatment good for society? Why is sport held to a different standard? Would professional contests be more affordable if the pro leagues had competing leagues? Would we see better retirement plans and safer conditions, if these leagues were held to the same work-place safety standards? Is it possible that corporations would give charitable contributions to actual charities if they didn’t have the luxury of giving funds to sports venues or leagues and receiving valuable tickets, signage, and naming rights deals for the money? Would I be writing this blog if the government had not nurtured sport into what it is today?

The theory here is easy to see how the government could influence professional sports into being rigged.

Years of evidence and no denial from any professional sport or supporting evidence games are not rigged:

Occasionally the truth about professional sports actually leaks out. Often these truths take the form of a “conspiracy theory,” spun that way by a sports media machine that profits from the games as much as the leagues do.  People through the years have collected data that points to evidence of games being rigged.  However no hard evidence has ever been collected and proved because the professional sports leagues and people that oversee these professional sports will not allow anyone to truly investigate the leagues.