No amount of cash rewards by the football federation will fix match fixing

A cash reward assumes two key things. One, that it is enough compensation to motivate those who know wrong doers, into reporting them. Two, that it is a silver bullet aimed at the identified cause of any given problem. The recently announced cash rewards by Fufa against match fixing however, meet neither criterion.

Shs1 million can be more than matched by those engaged in match fixing, rendering it a poor motivator. And the problem is not that match fixing exists. It is that all our solutions to it suggest we don’t understand its root cause.

For us to understand this vice we need to examine what its true charm is. Consider this for example. There are 25 million mobile phone users in Uganda. If a conservative half of them picked their phone and placed a very reasonable 1,000 shilling one-one bet daily for a week, and half of them lost, the betting companies would still take in Shs87.5b. Remember, Shs1,000 per day isn’t unreasonable given the huge appetite for betting we see these days.

From this example alone we can deduce that Sport betting could become the biggest economic activity in Uganda within a few years, because Shs87.5b per week translates into 3 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product. Few economic activities can singularly claim volumes or even growth.

And as if the rewards of this economic relationship aren’t biased enough towards the betting houses, the example provided above is conservative. For one, the odds are never that simple. And then, now that sport betting has gone mobile and therefore more accessible, more people than just half the adult population are addicted to gambling.

Remember, all this is taking place in depressed economies, hardly free of the vagaries of the coronavirus pandemic, and that are completely unable to offer alternative earning opportunities to their bulging young population. And this is where those offering cash rewards have missed the point.
Chances are that match fixers aren’t just being naughty. They are looking for means of survival.

For every story about a young footballer struggling to make ends meet, are hundreds of those who without skills or relatives in high places, won themselves life-changing amounts in an instant. And it is that promise that has driven many into match fixing.

So, in many ways, sports-betting, and its evil offspring match-fixing, have become the wicked but logical path to follow for many young (and old) people. But that is the “what”   

The “why” is how can we fail to see it isn’t sustainable for an entire nation’s employable population to continue investing so much ‘wealth’ and time in an unmeasurable and therefore unmanageable activity? Do we not see the futility in hoping that one day luck will shine upon us and our stars will all align?

Not even the math adds up, because, gambling by its very nature produces a few winners and very many losers. We on the other hand need many winners if we are to keep up with today’s world of hand-held gadgets and apps.

And seeing we just can’t stop the world and jump off, we might as well hold on tight. And to do this, our schools, homes and businesses must reconfigure our societal operating system into one that will provide answers for tomorrow’s economic riddles – which are creativity, knowledge-acquiring mastery and purpose. 

It would be foolish to believe we can find these on a paper slip with 17 random games, but even more scary to imagine that we think cash rewards will address all of this.

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Twitter: @MBanturaki