Spot-fixing

Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include something as minor as timing a no ball or wide delivery in cricket or timing the first throw-in or corner in association football.

Spot-fixing attempts to defraud bookmakers by a player taking a pre-arranged action to fix the result of that specific event.^[1] Spot-fixing differs from match fixing in which the final result of a match is fixed or point shaving in which players (or officials) attempt to limit the margin of victory of the favoured team. Spot-fixing is more difficult to detect than match fixing or point shaving, and by its nature, it can be perpetrated by a lone fraudulent player without any other players or officials being needed to co-operate. The growth of Internet gambling and increased variety of betting options (for example, spread betting, first-scorer betting) resulted in the emergence of spot-fixing, particularly through the first decade of the 2000s.^[2]