Snooker under the match fixing spotlight

The scandal in sports fixing continues on with irregular betting patterns now resulting in the arrest of top  snooker star Stephen Lee at his Wiltshire home last Thursday.  Fixing a football match can be pretty difficult with all the other players on the field but when you think about it, snooker has got to be a prime candidate. The margins for error are so fine and anybody who has watched the game knows that nerves can play a vital role and we quite often see what appears to be a quite simple pot missed; so how will the authorities ever prove that a miss was deliberate? Once ranked number 5 in the world, 35 year old father of four Lee has slipped to number 25 and is believed to have made no more than £50000 in prize money last year; he is also no stranger to controversy having been tested positive for drugs in the past. Ex World Champion Ken Docherty who now works for the BBC said “It’s a huge surprise; there have never been any rumours surrounding him” and the infamous Jimmy White said he was in total shock. Lee’s agent Paul Mount was also surprised saying “He’s been putting in a lot of practise, the last thing he’d be doing is throwing matches”. Lee is not the first snooker player to be investigated as Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett were also questioned about a match at the UK Championship last year. It’s all a bit damaging for the regular punter though because you may back the better player and still lose due to outside influences. Maybe we should all stick to online casinos where we know what the odds are of winning and losing.