Hungry for sporting events, the bookmakers immediately jumped on the NBA 2K20 tournament, in which current NBA players will compete for a prize of $100,000. Prize money will go to the charity chosen by the winner. The tournament is played on the Xbox One, so real players fight in a virtual world.
After the first game, in which Derrick Jones (Miami Heat) beat Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets) with a score of 78-62, bookmakers suspected a trick. It turned out that the game that aired on ESPN and ESPN 2 was a recording and not a live broadcast as expected. And information about the result of the meeting, most likely, spread even before the show. As a result, bookmakers lost money and suspended premium bets on the event. An expert from MyBookie noted:
It became clear that someone knew something, and that the results were leaked. For us, this is a nightmare scenario. When the results are compromised, we close the lines and examine the information ourselves. She almost always appears on the forums or on Twitter.
Durant was the favorite for this clash, as out of 16 players in the tournament, his opponent was in last place according to recent rankings. What happened in the bookmaker's office was different from logical expectations. SportsBetting spokesman said:
We had originally made Durant the favorite to win the tournament, but when the odds turned out to be completely one-sided in favor of Jones, it became obvious that someone knew the outcome of the game.
This is what Malta's regulator was warning about when it made announcements to its licensees about esports betting. Among the recommendations was the advice to check whether the tournaments are recorded or live.
More recently, bookmakers have already been in the role of a cash cow, when it was generally not clear whether football matches were held between Ukrainian teams of the lower league or not. Then there were suggestions that the teams did not meet at all, and the scammers who supplied the bookmakers with statistics made money on their desperate situation.
