A Case Study on The Match Fixing in Korea Pro Sports 1 1, First Author Baekseok University, bing7@bu.ac.kr Abstract The purpose of this study is to figure out the case, cause of Korea's pro sports match fixing. Match fixing is that in organized sports, match fixing, race fixing or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. The biggest problem of match-fixing is breaking spirit of sports. Most of people are all over into sports because of the difficulty to predict the winner, so the match-fixing is a important factor to drop the interest of sports. This study was investigated to find out of South Korea s pro sports league(soccer, volleyball, baseball, basketball) match fixing scandal and causes. 1. Introduction Keywords: match fixing, case study, Korea pro sports A fresh match-fixing scandal has kicked dirt in the face of Korean professional sports. In 2011, more than 50 footballers from the K-League, which has recently been renamed the K League Classic, were investigated for their involvement in a league-wide match fixing scandal. The league slapped lifetime bans on 47 players last year, a list headlined by former South Korea internationals Choi Sung-kuk and Kim Dong-hyun. Two players who were linked to wrongdoing committed suicide before the probe was finished. However, critics blasted the league for short-cutting its internal investigation on the scandal to avoid disruption to its regular season schedule. Rebranding itself as the K League Classic was the basically a desperate attempt at improving its image. At the start of 2012, 16 professional volleyball players were investigated and received lifetime bans for involvement in in-game manipulation. The game-rigging scandal spread to the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) months later LG Twins pitchers Park Hyun-joon and Kim Seong-hyun were exposed for their collusion with fixers and slapped with lifetime bans[1]. Match fixing is that In organized sports, match fixing, race fixing or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as race fixing. Games that are deliberately lost are sometimes called thrown games. When a team intentionally loses a game, or does not score as high as it can, to obtain a perceived future competitive advantage (for instance, earning a high draft pick) rather than gamblers being involved, the team is often said to have tanked the game instead of having thrown it. In pool hustling, tanking is known as dumping. In sports where a handicap system exists and is capable of being abused, tanking is known as sandbagging[2]. The biggest problem of match-fixing is breaking the spirit of sports. Most of people are all over into sports because of the difficulty to predict the winner, so the match-fixing is a important factor to drop the interest of sports. The purpose of this study is to figure out the case, cause and the solution of Korea's pro sports match fixing. 2. The match fixing cases in Korea 2.1. Korea soccer match fixing scandal Some of the players got paid to win the game in K-League in 2011. Four players were arrested and 11 were banned giving a shock to the Korean League. Match-fixing case revealed when the two players from the K-League were arrested. International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications(JDCTA) Volume7, Number13, Sep 2013 360
Full-scale investigation began when Yoon ki won who was a goalkeeper K-League club Incheon United attempted suicide in his car on May 6 in 2011. K-League players and related society assumed that Yoon ki won committed suicide because of the pressure of match-fixing. There was a rumor that Yoon ki won was threatened from the broker and the gang when the game ended in a draw when it was supposed to win. The Prosecutors have jotted down that in total of 21 matches of K-League matches have been involved in match fixing.due to this a total of nine operations were disclosed and former 53 professional football players with 14 of them were caught and the court arrested them and charged 20 people and 40 people were indicted without detention. Depending on the court since joining from 3 million won fine for up to four years in prison were convicted to them. 2.2. Korea volleyball match fixing scandal In Korea V-League some of the players got paid to win the game. Prosecutors have questioned 15 former and active volleyball players about their alleged role in match fixing. Thirteen male players, current and retired, from three teams and two current female players are under suspicions of playing a role in match-rigging attempts during games in the 2009-2011 seasons. In addition, five gambling brokers and one financier were under investigation on charges of paying the players to deliberately make mistakes during games, This is the first match-fixing scandal to hit the V-League, which was launched in 2005 in place of a popular industrial league[3]. In 17 Men's Volleyball games players manipulated the game and Women's Volleyball players in one game, and in return received 1.5 to 5 million won per game. Brokers have public related team players whose percentage of victories were weak and if they lose a game with certain score they will provide dividend using Handicap Method. 2.3. Korea baseball match fixing scandal Park Hyun-jun, a right-hander for the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), appeared before prosecutors in Daegu, a metropolitan city some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Park is under suspicion of accepting bribes in return for trying to fix baseball games last season. His teammate, pitcher Kim Seong-hyun, was put under arrest for his alleged connection in the fixing scandal. He was charged with taking kickbacks from a gambling broker and deliberating issuing firstinning walks last year. Park, 25, has been claiming innocence since his name first surfaced in the fast-spreading baseball fixing rumors last month. He led the Twins with 13 wins in 2011, accounting for nearly a quarter of the team's victories. A former college baseball player was recently arrested for allegedly introducing Kim and Park to a broker to aid in match fixing schemes. The ex-player has also testified that more games have been fixed than what prosecutors initially suspected[4]. Park and Kim are suspected of having taken part in "spot fixing," an activity where particular plays, such as first-inning walks by a starter, are fixed. Spot fixing is considered more difficult to detect than match fixing attempts, since fixed plays are often seemingly inconsequential plays with little impact on the outcome of the game. In the case of Pro Baseball they made a various methods of betting not focusing on winning but to operate the game easily. 2.4. Korea basketball match fixing scandal The prosecution indicted basketball legend and former Korean Basketball League (KBL) s Dongbu coach Kang Dong-hee on a charge of fixing basketball games. Kang allegedly rigged four matches in 2011 in return for 47 million won ($42,200) paid by a broker, surnamed Choi. The two have been friends over a decade and Choi reportedly persuaded the basketball coach to fix matches. 361
Throughout the four professional sports this is the first time that a coach was involved in matchfixing. The prosecution also indicted Choi and two others for taking part in the match-fixing. Kang was arrested on March 11, and his team, Dongbu Promy, announced the next day Kang would resign from his managerial post[5]. Finally In July 18, 2012 the coach Kang Dong Hee was decided two years imprisonment and charged at trial 47 million won. And a broker who requested match fixing to the coach was sentenced four years. In February-March 2011 the Prosecutors analysis video manipulate in four games Coach Kang inserted four players who did not have experience as a starting member. The Coach tried to trick the game 1-2 days before the operation, and this fact was known to the broker before the game[6]. Information brokers already knew about this and received a huge amount of illegal betting on sports Toto dividends. 3. Causes of match fixing Here are the Causes of match-fixing. First, the most likely cause of match-fixing is due to illegal internet sports gambling sites. The scale of illegal internet sports betting year is estimated to be more than about 7 trillion won[7]. Illegal sport betting sites in South Korea is expected to exceed 1,000. The Government said that they will crackdown on illegal sites, such as blocking the inherently exposed to the player match-fixing. But illegal sport betting sites has servers in foreign countries and they operate it. So it is difficult to trace it and event though they block the sites it is easy to produce the illegal betting sites in 3 weeks. Illegal sport betting sites are various from sports games to E -sports. And betting per capital amount is limited to 100-100000 won. Sports Toto, unlike the full amount bet per game, distribute an unlimited number of large bets and this is possible because it is easy to attract people. The brokers of Illegal Sports Betting put a trap to the players to do Match fixing by giving them a lot of money and cutting a melon. By Match Fixing they can estimate the winning team and take away a lot dividend. The brokers are the culprits of Match Fixing. Second, it is not sufficient to respond to Match Fixing appropriately by legal and institutional system. So far it was the problem of the individual player to choose to do Match Fixing and this was an unethical behavior[8]. But as Gibson Winter(1981) said that "Humans unethical behavior is made because of the society and unethical Society makes humans unethical. It is not a problem of a person but an institutional problem[9]. There was a lack of prevention from the government, criminal punishment and it was not enough to crack down on Match Fixing Last, the cause of match-fixing in South Korea can be regarded as winning at all coast and elitism. Until now, the korea's elite sports based on state-led elite sports policies as part of the national policy by fostering elite athletes have developed at a rapid pace for purposes to increase national competitiveness through sports[10]. This policy has enhanced korea's status of world sports power and contribute public unity and spirit through sports. But state-led elite sports policies that emphasize only results produce various ethical problems by winning at all coast ideology. According to government figures, about 60% of athletes have jobs unrelated to sports. The victory of sports supremacy and elitism made athletes sports machines. Sport coaches and parents only have time to think of making student-athletes more powerful sport machines. Good results are all the coach wishes, because entering college or professional team are the ultimate purpose. Student athlete had insufficient opportunity to study about holistic personality development and participation in society. Therefore the professional players have not learnt of ethical awareness to overcome match-fixing in sports. 362
4. Measures to prevent match-fixing Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism announced prevention of match-fixing through fair and Clear Sports Environment. here are the proposals to prevent Match fixing by using the Government presentation[11]. First, Make an broken window theory related to Match Fixing. penalties are given to people and players involved in match-fixing during the incidents but protocols are not specified yet leading to less penalty to the clubs and people involved in it, and responsibility of the players are lacking in simple match fixing games. Therefore penalties must be reinforced to involved people and clubs. Related players and leaders must be expelled or suspended permanently, and depending on the severity the club funding should be reduced or kicked off from the league. It is a positive change that korea sports promotion law has been reformed to give penalty for those who participate in the illegal gambling through sports betting site, Second, regular game operation of monitoring system should built for prevention of match-fixing. Currently Game management of professional league are focused on records and game operation but the game field of monitoring system is lacking for prevention of match-fixing. Therefore immediate action should be done by the game supervisor when signs of match-fixing are shown. Also Pro sports fair centers be run to catch match fixing doubters through all game monitoring. The government decided to adopt a inspection system about associated match fixing secret observation. Third, reinforcement of match-fixing prevention education and activities. Currently each sports association is educating about match fixing to players but education effect is weak. Thus, match-fixing prevention education should be expanded from once a year to four times a year for coach and athletes. Before joining the club and opening the season, athletes and clubs have to sign match fixing related requirements. Fourth, there should be an award for match-fixing complainant, and running a call center is necessary too. Match fixing exposure is easy by whistle blowing but there is not enough institutional inductive tactics. Also, the institutional standards of leniency program in match fixing is incomplete. Professional counseling and the reception desk of the players about match fixing should be unified. The government has decided to strengthen reward institutions for whistle blowing. When players and coach regardless to match fixing whistle-blow, reward increase from 10 million to 100 million won. Also, the government decided to adopt a leniency system that reduce penalties when the involved coach and the players report voluntarily. and decided to establish and operate a integrated call center that can be able to report freely and consult about related match fixing without status disadvantage. Fifth, it is important to expand professional team star players annual salary and pension. The important reason the players participate in match fixing are due to the wage gap, inadequate protections for retired players. The government should try to increase athletes' minimum salaries and pension funding so that they will be less tempted to match fixing. Finally there should be a system to root out illegal sport betting sites. Illegal sports betting sites which is the epicenter of match-fixing should be eradicated. Current blocking effect of illegal sports betting site is insufficient because it takes six weeks to block illegal sport betting sites and site operators changes the site address in less than a month. Therefore the joint crackdown with the national police agency, Korea communications commission and the ministry of culture, sports and tourism for eradication of match fixing, should be strengthened through cooperation with related organizations. 363
5. Conclusion Due to match fixing South Korea's four professional sports, football, baseball, basketball, volleyball league embraced big disappointment to the people who love sports. The reasons for Match fixing in korea are illegal internet sport betting sites and to respond appropriately to legal and institutional systems lack to win supremacy and elitism To prevent Match fixing, firstly it is important to establish zero tolerance for stakeholder. Second, match-fixing operation regular monitoring system should be built. Third, match-fixing activities should strengthen prevention education. Fourth, there should be an award for match-fixing complainant, and running a call center is necessary too. Fifth it is important to expand professional team star players annual salary and pension and finally there should be a system to root out illegal sports betting site. 6. References [1] Kim Tong-hyung. Match-fixing scandals shake Korean sports to the core, The Korea Times, March 5, 2013, p. 23. [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/match_fixing [3] Kim jong chan, "15 volleyball players under probe in match-fixing scandal," The Korea Times, February 19, 2012, p. 8. [4] Lee Won Woo. "2nd baseball pitcher faces questioning over match-fixing llegations," The Korea Times, March, 2012, p. 12. [5] Nam Hyun Woo. "Basketball coach Kang indicted for match-fixing," The Korea Times, March 9, 2013, p. 9. [6] Lim Byung Sik. Gang, Dong-Hui former basketball coach, indictment for match fixing, Yonhap News, March 29, 2013, p.16. [7] Moon, Hwa Sil, Park, Young Jin, Criminal Liability and Measures For Sport Manipulation, The Korea Journal of Physical Education, vol.51, no.1, pp.1-16, 2012. [8] Seo, Hee Jin, Han, Seung Back, K-League Match-fixing Scandal and the Problem of Korean Sportstoto s Management, The Korea Journal of Physical Education, vol.51, no.4, pp. 45-54, 2012. [9] Gibson. Winter. (1981). The Liberating Creation: Foundations of Religious Social Ethics. Crossroad. N. Y. [10] Bing, Won Chul, A Phenomenological Study on Ethical Problems of Taekwondo game Culture, Journal of Sport and Leisure Studies Vol. 34, no.0, pp. 44-56, 2008. [11] Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism. Announcing fair and Clear Sports Environment, July 13, 2012. 364