Match-Fixing in Darts
The authorities in charge of darts have also had to deal with match rigging a few times over the years. Concerns were voiced in 2017 regarding wagering on a World Championship preliminary match between Gilbert Ulang and Kevin Simm. Soon after, an investigation was started, and Ulang was questioned before being determined to have lost the game on purpose. The darts player from the Philippines was given a seven-year suspension and ordered to pay £2,500 in fees. The length of the penalty served as a warning to other players. It reflected the emphasis that the Darts Regulation Authority put on purposeful cheating at the Sport's highest level.
In 2016, Peter Wright's manager and wife appeared to imply on Twitter that Gary Anderson would not give his all against Adrian Lewis in the PDC Premier League to ensure Lewis advanced to the following round of the competition. Lewis responded with skepticism to the charges in a string of later deleted tweets. Joanne Wright also refuted the claims, claiming that the direct messages were sent in jest to someone who had abused Peter Wright and had been taken out of context. The darting authorities took no action, and there is no claim of unlawful conduct connected to match manipulation. Nevertheless, observing how vehemently Lewis fought the blemishes on his personality was intriguing.
Anderson also took part in an earlier event in which bookies reported seeing unusual betting patterns. Large sums of money were wagered on Anderson, who went on to win the match 3-1, despite the odds indicating a close encounter in the first round of the 2006 BDO World Darts Championship. Coral adopted an unorthodox stance, claiming they were paying winning bets "through clenched teeth" since they had suspicions but no concrete evidence of fraud. After a BDO-led investigation, no charges were ever filed against either player.
In conclusion, it is clear from the preceding that match-fixing taints the image of both the Sport and the athletes involved in the Sport. The ripple effect of this would be reduced following of sports since it is no longer competitive, but a measure of how much scandalous people can gain from it, passively through betting or actively through corruption resulting in alteration of results by referees or awarding penalties to favor one team over the other. Sports Organizations all over the world have to acknowledge this situation and try their best they can to resolve this challenge.