NASCAR's Answer to Ratings Drop

How do you fix the lowest TV ratings in five years for NASCAR? Have one of it's most popular and only current female driver Danica Patrick win the pole for tomorrow's Daytona 500. Not saying this is outright fixed but has to be suspicious. Fox Sports, NASCAR, all the sponsors and everyone else involved just hit it big. That is a monumental amount of extra income that will be generated from this one event. Suspicious because Patrick has yet to win a race in NASCAR, it's her first full season in Sprint Cup and she is still adjusting to this type of car and now she wins the pole of the most coveted race of the year to kick off the season. Of note to futures bettors, the line on Patrick to win the Daytona 500 has now dropped from 125-1 to 22-1.

Widespread Match Fixing in Soccer

Europol recently announced their findings in a global betting scam run from Singapore that fixed hundreds of soccer matches back to 2008. Approximately 680 suspicious matches including World Cup and European championships qualifying games and the Champions League games were found to have turned up close to the equivalent of $11 million in profits and $2.7 million in bribes. Investigators found 425 participants from 15 countries including players, match officials, club officials and criminals were involved.

Did Bill Callahan Throw Super Bowl XXXVII?

Former Oakland Raiders players Tim Brown and Jerry Rice say coach Bill Callahan threw the Super Bowl game in 2003 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers which they lost 48-21. They claim Callahan disliked his team and players and was content to let his old boss, then-Bucs coach John Gruden, beat him. Callahan surprised players by changing the offensive game plan just three days before the Super Bowl which is just unheard of at this level. In previous seasons players did not support or trust Callahan. Callahan has since denied these allegations and outraged by them. Not very often you hear players accuse coaches of sabotage so hopefully this is further investigated and exposed if true.

They Call it the Super Bowl for a Reason

My yearly rant about this game is back. They call it the Super Bowl because Vegas and online sports books along with the bookies make a SUPER killing. Vegas sports books have profited off this game 20 out of the last 22 years with losses of $2.57M and $397K in those two losing years. Sure, all those ridiculous prop bets add to the take but how can anyone profit that many years without some sort of fixed result to ensure profitability? Maybe the sports books should be the one's raising the Lombardi trophy each year. Happy betting and enjoy the Super Bowl.