Sumo betting seems rigged - can you make profit with it?

[paxmao]

It has been said that Sumo, the Japanese fighting sport is not as clean as it should be. Apparently, in the maximum cathegory - short of a premier league - there is tendency to let win those who need to win in order to remain in that cathegory. This was studied and mentioned later on a book called Freakconomics.

An article here-

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

[Sled]

Not because a certain sport is a rig you would easily win... that's a wrong perception, rig games favor only people who know which fighter will win, while it's expected that majority of the bettors are on the wrong side to fill the bets of the opposite party which is controlled by the whales or those who rig the game. Lots of league or games are rig, but was it announce that everyone was winning because it was rig?

[stomachgrowls]

Actually surprised that even into this one it can be rigged out where you would be clearly seeing if something goes wrong between those sumo wrestlers.
Did make out some search and found several articles about rigging up their fights.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/03/sumo-wrestlers-admit-fixing-matches
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/world/asia/05sumo.html
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DugganLevitt2002.pdf

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

When it comes to this then this isnt something that you can easily handle or guess on.

[just_Alice]

It has been said that Sumo, the Japanese fighting sport is not as clean as it should be. Apparently, in the maximum cathegory - short of a premier league - there is tendency to let win those who need to win in order to remain in that cathegory. This was studied and mentioned later on a book called Freakconomics.
An article here-

The references in the article you provided are dated over a decade ago, the things can be different now. But nonetheless, why there wouldn't be rigging in sumo? If other combat sports are so easily rigged, why can't this one be?

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

Obviously, no. Unless someone from the inside spills the beans. In another case, rigging will more likely be a disadvantage, because you place bets basing on what you know about the sportsmen, the teams, their previous fighting, etc., and if the game's rigged the things become unpredictable.

[Mahanton]

It has been said that Sumo, the Japanese fighting sport is not as clean as it should be. Apparently, in the maximum cathegory - short of a premier league - there is tendency to let win those who need to win in order to remain in that cathegory. This was studied and mentioned later on a book called Freakconomics.
An article here-

The references in the article you provided are dated over a decade ago, the things can be different now. But nonetheless, why there wouldn't be rigging in sumo? If other combat sports are so easily rigged, why can't this one be?

Well said!

If known sports can be rigged out then there's no exception for this one to be rigged too.Its not really that surprising that fixing games or match-ups can really be done
without us knowing but somewhat it is bit obvious.
There's no way to be easy on predicting fixed matches and as you said unless if there would be someone would spill up the beans then that would
really be an advantage but i doubt that those information doesnt surface easily.

[samcrypto]

Many sports are being manipulated and Sumo is also vulnerable to that despite of the Japanese culture, I don’t think you can easily make money with this one, not unless you have someone working with the team and gave you the signal on who will won the match. I’d love watching Sumo, I saw a deep culture on this one and as far as I know, i didn’t bet on any match yet.

[sunsilk]

I know that Japanese are one of the most honest people in the world and it's part of their culture. But there really is the chance that a sumo game can be rigged but talking as if I'm sure of it, I can't stand with that as I have never bet with any sumo match.

By the way, in which common sports book we can see sumo wrestling matches to bet on?

[TimeTeller]

I know that Japanese are one of the most honest people in the world and it's part of their culture. But there really is the chance that a sumo game can be rigged but talking as if I'm sure of it, I can't stand with that as I have never bet with any sumo match.

By the way, in which common sports book we can see sumo wrestling matches to bet on?

They are honest people but in sports like this, rigging is always possible.
We don't know the combination of people involved in this sport, and there will always be a bad apple in the group.
Haven't really followed this sport, so maybe if you are familiar with the players and how they perform, you can spot if something is wrong with the match.

[Hamphser]

I know that Japanese are one of the most honest people in the world and it's part of their culture. But there really is the chance that a sumo game can be rigged but talking as if I'm sure of it, I can't stand with that as I have never bet with any sumo match.

By the way, in which common sports book we can see sumo wrestling matches to bet on?

When it comes to money then everything would change and also to think that not all would really be Japanese specially to those who had been organizing the event

therefore we can see chances of getting being rigged.So far i havent seen any bookies about sumo betting.

[Hydrogen]

Both mixed martial arts (pride fc) and sumo in japan have been tied to organized crime (yakuza) in past years.

New laws passed in japan prohibit yakuza from owning cellular phones or having bank accounts. Organized crime in the yakuza appears to be on the decline. And so perhaps gambling on sumo will become more legit as a result.

However there have been investigations in the past which determined some sumo athletes rig games between themselves on an honor based system for their own motives reasons that have nothing to do with gambling. Maybe one sumo wrestler might be struggling to pay his bills. And another will throw a match to help him out of a tight financial spot. That has been documented in the past.

Many rigged matches in sports occur on a regulatory level with judges, referees and athletic commissions. That could be a more worrisome obstacle to overcome for gamblers.

[Wexnident]

Well taking advantage of rigged games requires one to actually know that the game is rigged in the first place. Identifying the underlying details of a match beforehand could prove to be quite useful, heck just identifying if the match has a chance of being rigged or not is already good enough info for one to take advantage of. Seems like its an open understanding within the community at times since it's happened quite often?

[Kittygalore]

If you know who wins then it can help you immensely in betting, but in this case, the rigging of the matches is going to be difficult for you because you don't exactly know but you have an idea who wins the match but things could turn the other way.

[Saint-loup]

Well taking advantage of rigged games requires one to actually know that the game is rigged in the first place. Identifying the underlying details of a match beforehand could prove to be quite useful, heck just identifying if the match has a chance of being rigged or not is already good enough info for one to take advantage of. Seems like its an open understanding within the community at times since it's happened quite often?

I don't understand what you mean Wexnident, could you explain how you can take advantage from a match having chances of being rigged precisely? Even if you know that the match will be rigged you can't know how it will be rigged and which contestant will win at the end. The match could be rigged to let the favorite win more easily for example.

[harizen]

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

Generally, sumo is not excluded in the long-time problem of rigged games. It really happened at all sports.

But for us gamblers, rigged or not, how can we determine who will be the winner at the end? There's no such thing as advantages here for us that don't directly have a connection underground. We need to pick one over one and the chance of winning is still the same like we are betting on a fair fight.

[mu_enrico]

I kinda agree on this Reddit discussion. It is said that a wrestler needs 8 wins in order to not getting demoted, so those who get 7 wins have ~75% win rate because they desperately want to win (about incentive). And those who already get 8 wins (and not aiming for the top) kinda laid back since why bother trying. This situation is like when a football team already wins the league, they will play youngsters and reserves, thus clubs that face relegation battle can have the advantage and win.

[ralle14]

Rigged or not I think you can still turn it in your favor as long as you follow the sumo scene long enough just like how other bettors strictly bet on their main sport.

I don't understand what you mean Wexnident, could you explain how you can take advantage from a match having chances of being rigged precisely? Even if you know that the match will be rigged you can't know how it will be rigged and which contestant will win at the end. The match could be rigged to let the favorite win more easily for example.

I think what he meant was looking for other details where you could get an edge and knowing the match could be rigged is one example. When someone says it's rigged there could be a chance that the line moves from one side to the other and that's one way to take advantage of the situation.

[danherbias07]

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

What if it's also rigged the other way around? They may scatter the news that this player will try to lose the game but it's a strategy to put more bets on the other player for a higher profit.
It's still not in your favor if you are not part of the management of the player. They can always turn the tides if they see a chance for making money.
So no, I'll just stick with sports or games that has is not rigged. That way, I could also enjoy watching the game rather than regret betting for some game that is rigged and then rigged again. I will just feel bad for myself knowing it didn't go my way.

[Mauser]

It has been said that Sumo, the Japanese fighting sport is not as clean as it should be. Apparently, in the maximum cathegory - short of a premier league - there is tendency to let win those who need to win in order to remain in that cathegory. This was studied and mentioned later on a book called Freakconomics.

An article here-

Do you feel that knowing that a sport may be rigged you could actually turn it in your favour?

That is very interesting. I like freakconomics, they make good articles. Not really sure about the sumo betting market but we might be able to profit of it. This sounds like a strong bond between the athletes. Maybe the bookmaker already includes such tendencies into his odds, but still there should be some profit to be made. If the stronger sumo ringer let's the underdog win in the last match than we should be able to exploit. Has anyone bet in sumo fights on a crypto site?

[iTradeChips]

Your question is whether you will be able to be at an advantage if ever the games are rigged. Based on my research, it seems that some Sumo wrestlers themselves are the ones sending the match results via mobile phone and whoever has that information will be at an advantage. You see, this issue has been tackled way back in 2011 when three Sumo wrestlers admitted in public that they are sending rigged results using their mobile phones and has caused a national disappointment at the cost of the sport being tarnished. So I guess the government knows about it and has already been in the forefront of "cleaning" the sport from corruption.

Source - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/03/sumo-wrestlers-admit-fixing-matches

[TheNineClub]

I am not questioning if it is rigged, however, I am surprised as that really goes against the whole Japanese tradition and respect to sports in general. I know they are not above cheating in any regard, but still, it always seemed (and I think I watched somewhere where they talk about it) that they have the utmost respect to keeping sports as pure as possible. Oh well, modern times require modern solutions.