Match Fixing and Sport: Historical Perspectives

Match-Fixing and Sport studies match-fixing in historical perspective, revealing how match-fixing has always been a major sporting continuity, alongside another longstanding continuity, a widely-held belief in a mythical recent past of pristine purity.

The volume begins with a brief overview of match-fixing’s global contemporary contexts, the broad range of sports where it now surfaces, increased recognition of its moral, social, and economic threat, and the varied responses of leading sports organizations, legal gambling operators, police forces, governmental departments, and regulators. The following chapters explore the challenges of finding any reliable evidence of match-fixing in the past. An overview shows that match-fixing has been a major and substantial longstanding historical continuity in sport, usually but not always is linked to gambling and sporting materialism. Examples are brought forward to show that it could be found in Ancient Greece and Egypt and was widespread across the early modern and modern periods around the globe. Overall, the volume assists scholars by suggesting some key questions which a future agenda for the historical study of match-fixing might address.

Revealing how high-stakes betting, dishonest dealings and suspicious performances can be found throughout history, Match-Fixing and Sport will be of great interest to scholars of Sport History and Sport Ethics. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Mike Huggins is an Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cumbria and is also the President of the European Committee for Sports History.

Rob Hess is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the College of Sport and Exercise Science and the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.