Traces of (dis)organised crime in sports gambling: a case study of the 2011 K-League match-fixing scandal

Gambling-related match-fixing is a form of corruption that has become a global issue particularly since the start of the new millennium. Research on match-fixing has often emphasised the involvement of mafia-like criminal groups in match-fixing arrangements. By incorporating an activity-centred view of organised crime, this paper examines how, and to what extent, organised crime is involved in betting-related match-fixing with particular focus on the 2011 Korean football scandal. Analysing data from 11 in-depth interviews with government, football and gambling officials and two convicted footballers, this paper traces the relative contributions of external criminal influences and internal vulnerabilities of the football league towards the occurrence of the K-League’s match-fixing cases. The results suggest that illegal betting operators’ exploitation of match-fixing to hedge risks demonstrates the influence of external criminal groups. However, risks were also observed within the football sector (e.g., financial and performance imbalances in the league, normalised betting and inside-trading amongst footballers, close social links with organised mobs, etc.) revealing that, at that time, K-football was not only susceptible to external criminal influences but facilitated the opportunistic structure for match-fixing. Overall, this study highlights that match-fixing is not solely instigated by organised crime groups, but can also be incubated within a sport whose culture, management and ethics are not ready to co-exist with gambling.