Photo Gallery Crooked Bets
The 1-trillion-euro global betting business has also created a market for match-fixers in Europe, who infiltrate football clubs in order to skew games to conform to their betting slips. At the center of the latest investigation is Ireland's Athlone Town FC. Investigators believe the team is now controlled by a Chinese man named Mao Xiaodong, a notorious figure in the darker realms of the football world. He's better known as Eric Mao.
Players have been brought to the Irish team who are suspected of having been involved in match-fixing at teams they previously played for. European football investigators as well as police are looking into the allegations.
Francesco Baranca, pictured here, is the founder of Federbet, one of the largest bet surveillance systems around. His people sound the alarm when spreads begin shifting unusually and produce profiles of big-name gamblers like Eric Mao and players like Igors Labuts of Athlone Town FC. They sketch the connections between individuals in the global match-fixing business.
Athlone Town FC's training grounds. The club sold a stake in the team to an Asian investor and may now be part of a match-fixing scandal.
