While recent reports over allegations involving Irish 1st division side Athlone Town have brought the subject of match-fixing close to home, there are plenty of alternative betting options related to football which are perfectly above board.
Athlone Town is the oldest club in the Irish league, having been formed all the way back in 1887, so it is particularly sad to see it embroiled in this type of scandal. Having recently been taking over by a Portuguese consortium, Athlone’s match against Longford Town in April provoked some ‘highly suspicious’ betting activity according to UEFA.
Latvian keeper Igor Labuts was signed for the club by the new owners, and has previously featured in no fewer than 17 matches which were escalated for further scrutiny by UEFA.
While no action has been taken against the goalkeeper to date, two of the goals he conceded in the Longford game were examples of sloppy play at the very least.
While the UEFA investigations are still ongoing, it is to be hoped that the Athlone case is an isolated example and not the beginning of a trend whereby smaller European clubs can be picked off by gambling syndicates.
An altogether more above-board way to win money from footie is by trying one of the range of new online football scratchcards that are available these days. There are lots of football themed scratchcards around, and the online versions tend to offer better odds than the scratchies you can buy from your local shop.
No concerns about match-fixing when it comes to online scratch-cards then, but let’s just hope that the real game doesn’t become tarnished by opportunistic gamblers trying to take advantage of cash-strapped clubs.
