ABSTRACT
A crucial element that contributes to the fascination for millions of spectators and fans of professional sport and sports promotion is the uncertainty of the outcome of a contest. The uncertainty of outcome was described in one of the first sport economic papers ever published (Rottenberg, 1956). Although in most contests one team or athlete is determined to be superior to their competitor(s), the result of the contest remains uncertain. Furthermore, fans and spectators often support the ‘underdog’, which is the team or athlete that is expected to lose. However, the elimination of uncertainty from sports contests, known as matchfixing, causes competitors to give up their integrity; further, fans become less engaged and less excited, thus decreasing their willingness to pay for events. In 2011, Hein Verbrug gen, president of SportAccord, stated that integrity in professional organised sports is the most important commodity (Pitsch, Emrich and Pierdzioch, 2015). Similarly, McNamee (2013) pointed out that the basis of a sports contest has been undermined if the outcome is predetermined through match-fixing. Fans must believe that what they see on the field of play represents a true test of the competitor’s skills, otherwise there is a real risk that they will stop watching the contests and the sport will lose sponsors and broadcasters (Carpenter, 2014).
