Mexico and Uruguay to fix World Cup game?

Written by Dave Allan Saturday, 19 June 2010 13:42

England World Cup Blog

The first 'fixed' match of the World Cup is on the cards and the odds on the betting exchange Betfair suggest there will almost certainly be a draw in the game between Uruguay and Mexico on Tuesday June 22 at 3:00pm GMT.

The Mexico win over France on Thursday evening means a drawn match will see both the Spanish-speaking sides go through no mattter what the score in the game between France and the hosts South Africa.

Mexico and Uruguay have 4 points each with South Africa and France on one point apiece.

Currently Mexico are trading at 4.1 (around 3/1) while Uruguay can be backed at 4.6 (around 7/2). The 'fixed' result draw is the odds on favourite at  1.83 (4/6). With over £3.5 million matched at the time of writing this is certainly not a market vagery that can happen in immature markets (when liquidity is poor).

There is little history of rivalry between the two nations and according to Wikipedia (a dubious source at times, as we know) the two countries share common interests and support each other with special trade agreements.

It's a nice conspiracy theory, backed up by the betting markets and we will have to wait and see what happens in the game. However, as James Beckett rightly points out in his Mexico v Uruguay Betting Preview, should the game end in a draw then Uruguay as winners of the Group due to better goal difference would face the potentially easier game against either South Korea or Greece rather than face the World Cup favourites.

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