Already the first example in the major league this year
1. FC Kleve responded to the tip and informed its stewards and other staff to keep an eye out for the scouts in order to possibly expel them from the stadium. According to the information, they can be recognized by the fact that they are constantly tapping on their cell phones or may be wearing a headset to send messages over the phone. They upload information about the game’s progress online in real time. This means that the odds for live betting can be constantly changed.
“But during the game against Nettetal, we did not discover any people who gave the impression of passing on relevant data. If that had been the case, we would of course have exercised our house rules and expelled them from the stadium,” says Christoph Thyssen.
A league rival acted like this. At the beginning of September there were live bets on the league game VfB Hilden 03 against the SpVg. Schonnebeck been offered on the Internet. VfB located the data scouts in the stands. A police officer who is a regular spectator at the Hilden games took down the personal details of the two men, who were then immediately banned from entering the building.
1. FC Kleve and VfB Hilden had from Thomas Melchior received a tip that you could bet on the games of your major league teams. Melchior’s life, a former footballer and banker himself, was thrown into disarray when he became addicted to gambling. He lost around 800,000 euros through sports betting. In the book “My Life Is Not a Game” he writes about his life story. And after his crash, he declared war on illegal sports betting.
Betting on amateur football games played in Germany is generally prohibited according to the State Treaty on Gambling. However, they are possible with providers from abroad. Research by Bavarian Radio has shown that data scouts appeared at at least 2,700 amateur games in Germany in the 2023/24 season.
The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has listened to the issue. The state’s sports committee recently looked into this. However, the state government’s influence has so far been limited. So the only effective means for now is to locate the data scouts and throw them out of the stadiums.
Difficult undertaking from the club’s perspective
However, according to Christoph Thyssen, it is not so easy to recognize the relevant people. “Because at each of our home games there are a lot of people in the stands who often look at their cell phones and type something on them. “That’s normal in times of Facebook or football portals like FuPa,” says the chairman of 1. FC Kleve. Otherwise, the clubs’ hands are tied when it comes to the issue. “We cannot prevent bets on 1. FC Kleve games from being offered online anywhere in the world. We can only react if we identify data scouts,” says Thyssen.
The regional league team 1. FC Bocholt For example, data scouts from a sports betting service provider withdrew their accreditation for the home games at Hünting, according to an article in the Bocholt Borkener Volksblatt. The daily newspaper quotes Benjamin Kappelhoffpress spokesman for 1. FC Bocholt, with the words: “The accreditations were applied for under a different pretext. After the report on ARD, we did some research.” According to his research, employees of the sports data service provider were guests at 1. FC Bocholt for around a year.
The Lower Rhine Football Association (FVN) is of course also on the ball on the subject. “We have asked the clubs down to the district league C that they notify us immediately when they have received the information that bets can be placed on their teams’ games “, says Wolfgang Jades, Chairman of the football committee in the FVN. He also sees it as difficult to locate the data scouts “at games with several hundred spectators”. “The clubs can’t control every spectator. And almost every visitor has a cell phone in their hand anyway,” says Jades.
The association itself can only check whether there were any abnormalities in the games reported by the clubs. “We can only act if we feel that a game has been rigged because of a bet. But something like this has not yet been proven,” says Wolfgang Jades.
By the way: The game between 1. FC Kleve and Union Nettetal ended with a 2-0 win for the hosts. There were no special anomalies in the encounter in front of almost 300 spectators. And since then, 1. FC Kleve has not received any such information.
