Academic Dr Declan Hill, author of The Fix: Soccer and Organised Crime weighs in on match fixing on the Sydney Morning Herald this month.

So sports fans are upset about the arrest of a rugby league player who may have bet on his own match? Well, here is the bad news: the wave of sports corruption and match-fixing is just starting and it is going to get really, really bad. 

Why? First, there is an unspoken, economic tide underneath match-fixing. This is the globalisation of the gambling market. Ten years ago there were distinct betting markets around the world, but now, thanks to the internet and international television deals, there is really only one large global sports gambling market. This means you can place a bet on virtually any sport event taking place in the world.

How small are some of these sports events? Well, there was a summer soccer tournament for teenagers in Denmark that had bets placed on the matches in the Asian market. There were matches in the semi-professional, third-division Korean soccer league that were fixed by gamblers.

I had a conversation with a triad-connected businessman who placed bets on the Icelandic soccer league, because he thought it was the only league in the world where there would not be fixing. The corruption in sport ranges from games like these to the major international soccer tournaments, where for

20 years Asian criminal fixers have been approaching referees and players with bribes.

Lots of commentators are now declaring that match-fixing is luring in organised crime and gangsters. This is true, but concentrating on the big boys misses the point. The globalisation of the gambling market means now almost anyone can fix a sports event.

So long as a player is not stupid enough to walk into his own local betting shop and place a bet, there is little effective detection possible on the gambling market. The gambling authorities claim there is, but really smart fixers corrupt games every day and the betting industry cannot tell what is going on.

Finally, there is an elephant in the room. Many international sports officials are corrupt. Almost no governmental authority wants to discuss this problem.

But athletes know that some of the people running their teams, leagues and sports are taking illicit cash. Until someone is willing to tackle this problem, then the match-fixing will only get worse.

Weigh in, do you believe match fixing will ever be eliminated?