Earlier this week, Spartak captain Yegor Titov, speaking about the meeting between Tom and CSKA, carefully, but in such a way that there wasn’t even a hint of discrepancy, linked the refusal of the bookmakers to bet on the victory of the army team with the unsportsmanlike game. In fact, it was a charge. The reaction of the army team was limited to a statement - however, extremely offensive for Spartak - CSKA president Yevgeny Giner (it is posted on the club’s official website). Izvestia decided to find out if the meeting was negotiable at the bookmakers themselves.
Yury Grigoryevich, an employee of the FON bookmaker’s office (he asked not to give his last name), has been accepting money from the population for 12 years. His job is to come up with odds and catch the so-called strange bets. As soon as the match seems to Yuri and his colleagues suspicious, the acceptance of bets on him will cease.
So, according to Yuri and contrary to Titov’s statement, no one stopped taking bets on the Tom match - CSKA.
“This game did not look contractual, judging by the behavior of the bookmakers,” says Yuri. - The coefficient on the victory of the army team at some point fell from 2 to 1.5 due to the fact that there were many who wanted to bet. But not so much as to say anything unambiguously. Otherwise, the bookmakers would simply remove this match from the line or accept bets, but not more than 100 rubles - it all depends on the policy of a particular office. The people who bet on CSKA were not sure of anything. They simply argued: CSKA, firstly, is stronger, secondly, he needs this victory, and “Tommy” - no, thirdly, CSKA have good relations with “Tommy”. Why not put on CSKA?
Since there was too much reasoning in this way, the bookmakers corrected the coefficient. We secured ourselves, let’s say so. But to say that quotes testified to the contractual nature of the match, according to our interlocutor, is impossible.
“The scandal here is more likely due to Titov’s words than because of quotes,” Yuri continues. - For example, the game “Wings” with “Ray” was much more suspicious, then for the victory of “Wings” we gave a coefficient of 1.05, and people still carried money. This is an occasion for conclusions. But that match didn’t affect anyone’s interests, so everything went quietly. Mutko sent a commissioner there, who returned and said that the meeting was fair. It’s funny.
According to Yuri, the volume of bets is not always a signal for bookmakers.
“There are matches about which everything is clear after the visit of one player,” he admits. - Once before the UEFA Cup match between the Greek “Panionis” and Tbilisi “Dynamo” one Greek came to us and bet that Tbilisi would win the first half, but lose the whole match. The odds for such a bet are 25 to 1. Well, I accepted it and immediately began to look at the forums: it turns out that in other offices they also put it that way. Of course, we immediately deleted this match, although the Greek 600 dollars still managed to earn. It is impossible to prove that he was informed about something.
By the way, in relation to that match, UEFA conducted an investigation. The reason was just his popularity among those who want to bet in bookmakers. To prove then (the case was in 2004) failed.
As Yuri admitted to Izvestia, the more solid the club, the less likely it is that anyone will even know about his agreements with a rival:
- Even if we assume that CSKA or a club of its rank is entering into some sort of conspiracy, this information does not go down, ordinary players or ordinary employees will not know about it. This means that there is no place for strange bets - top management does not go to bookmakers. Most often the teams of the first and second divisions shine: there, even the club janitor, who carries his 500 rubles to the office, becomes aware of the contract. The driver and the secretary do the same, in addition, they advise delivering to their relatives. Then everything can be seen. But still not provable.
According to the bookmaker, about 30% of matches in Russian football are negotiable. When asked whether Spartak and Zenit never participate in this kind of games, he replies:
- Let's just say they do it a lot less often. But nothing can be completely ruled out. For example, I’m not sure that the Italians won the World Cup honestly. I would not be surprised if their victory was known in advance. And those who needed it, for example, knew that Brazilians in Germany did not shine. It was always and everywhere. And Kiev “Dynamo” in Soviet times, and the Ukrainian team now ... And they said about Russia that she played some matches like that. In particular, with Yugoslavia in 2001 ... I don’t know whether it can be overcome, but the fact that now they will punish someone alone - “Ray”, for example - the situation is unlikely to change ...
Chermen Dzgoev