In today’s age of materialism, gambling is no longer limited to the blackjack table. When money and sports mix, the result is often a scandal that ends someone’s career and sometimes even damages an entire sport’s reputation. Here are three sports betting scandals that show how quickly sports can degrade when players, coaches and managers start betting on their own games.
Pete Rose’s Sports Betting Scandal
Before performance-enhancing drugs had tarnished the name of America’s pastime, there was Pete Rose, whose name has become synonymous with baseball betting scandals. Rose had a strong career playing for the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown team. Rose played with the Reds from 1963 to 1978, and then returned in 1984 to play another five years. Once he stopped playing, he worked as a manager for the Reds. That is when things started to go south for the former MVP.
In 1989, he was banned from baseball because of accusations that he had gambled on MLB events while playing and managing for the Reds. Despite his permanent ineligibility, Rose continued to claim innocence and brought up the issue year after year. Until 2004, that is, when his autobiography My Prison Without Bars was released. He came clean in the book, but says he never bet on the Reds. During the book’s promotion, however, he claimed that he bet on his team every night. At this point, it is hard to imagine that anyone was shocked to find out that he had bet for the Reds since he had been lying for 15 years and only decided to come clean during promotions for a book that pocketed him a million dollar advance. As a player and manager, he was in a unique position of being able to beat the odds and to render the gambler’s fallacy useless.
Rick Neuheisel’s March Madness Pool
Not all sports betting scandals are as cut and dry as Pete Rose’s story. Take Rick Neuheisel, who was fired from his position as the University of Washington’s football coach in 2003 for participating in March Madness betting pools. Everyone has participated in March Madness and similar pools. The NCAA even allows coaches to participate in them as long they are off-campus. The courts awarded Neuheisel a $4.5 million settlement for wrongful termination.
Joe Jackson Fixed the 1919 World Series
Shoeless Joe Jackson might not be the first baseball player to come to your mind for sports betting scandals, but he dominated the newspapers in 1919 when he and seven other Black Sox players fixed the 1919 World Series. Jackson was a rising star in baseball, but his career was cut short when commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned him from the game for life. He came clean at a grand jury in 1920, undoubtedly breaking the hearts of fans across America.
With the issue of rugby’s survival, we can only hope that something like this will never happen to tarnish the image of the game we all love.
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You bored Rob????
@Pokkel (Comment 1) : this was written by a guest blogger
As rugby grows it’s inevitable that something like this will happen.people are always looking 2 cheat the system. Btw does anybody know where i can find the rules 4 this site? im tired of getting warnings that i broke some rule.
@Pokkel (Comment 1) :
Show some respect will ya?? 😈 😉
@robdylan (Comment 2) : Welcome to the guest blogger 😎 …..I just couldn’t see any relevance here 😉
No Hansie on that list. Hmmm 😕
there was money involved… try to keep up, guys!
@Poisy (Comment 3) : Look to your left under Contents…The Rules
@Poisy (Comment 3) : Cheating in rugby….never
😉
Dont give me links to online casinos please. I’m poor enough thank you 👿 😉
@wpw (Comment 6) : 😯
@wpw (Comment 6) : That’s not nice… despite of what Hansie did I still regarded him as a gentleman and a true servant to the game of cricket. So please don’t compare him to any of the above.
@Poisy (Comment 3) : Well as long as you keep racism and politics out of your comments, there shouldn’t be a problem…
@Farlington (Comment 12) : Yeah, but what Hansie did was still disgraceful. Throwing games is not exactly being a true servant of the game. Besides, past players have intimated that behind that gentlemanly smile was a neurotic man obsessed with money.
@Farlington (Comment 12) : he was still a legend in his time and a great guy agree you nobody disgrace his name like that he is not here to defend himself 😕 there arr always reason for what people do and don’t do 😉
@chaz (For you Bro) (Comment 15) : he was a legend as a cricketer and he disgraced his own name when he took bribes. He cheated and he lied. He could have been a great but he destroyed that with his greed.
@lostfish (Comment 16) : yes i agree but let him be 😕 don’t go and talk about it when he is not around 😉
😕 😉 And then who many do take bribes that aren’t caught
@Farlington (Comment 12) : Hansie was a crook. He should have been pillored and thrown in jail. And this belief that you don’t speak ill of the dead is bullstein.
Hansie was a cheat, a liar and a fraud. That should never be forgotten.
@Farlington (Comment 12) :
Vinchainsaw is gonna have a field day on this one!!
@Worcestershire Sauce (Comment 18) :
+ 1000 😈
@Worcestershire Sauce (Comment 18) : Like i said dude… I (being the operative word) regard him as as a gentleman and he made a mistake that cost him his carreer and ruined him as a person. I feel sorry that you feel this way about him but that is your opinion… I do however feel that he has paid his dues and unlike the other guys in the article, I think Hansie did have a conscious.
@wpw (Comment 20) : And one day I will be perfect to.
@Farlington (Comment 22) :
😆