Van der Giessen on match-fixing research: "The problem is that so much can be bet on all kinds of things that are not shocking"

On Tuesday, it came out that at least six Dutch dart players had been approached to influence the results of matches including top professionals such as Niels Zonneveld and Maik Kuivenhoven.

They did not respond and reported the request for match fixing. AD asked reporter Arjan van der Giessen for a response.

He was not surprised but did not indicate that it isn't so much an issue for big players but those on the lower end of the darting rankings.

“I think you should mainly look for the darts players between place 64 and 200 in the world rankings. A Van Gerwen would never participate in this. He laughs about it and waves it away. He also knows that would mean the end of a career. Purely hypothetical: Van Gerwen suddenly loses 5-0 to Dave Chisnall, against a very high odds. Then the world is too small and an investigation is started. But that is extreme. The problem is that so much can be bet on all kinds of things that are not shocking. The possibilities are really enormous."

Because it is not only the results that can be used. Gamblers can also bet money on, for example, the number of 180 hit by players in a match. As well as the maximum number of legs a player wins and the highest finish of a match.

"So you can bet a lot on all kinds of different aspects, you can make it as crazy as you want," explains Van der Giessen. '' Suppose you receive 5000 or 10,000 euros from your match fixer to throw less 180's, so you can still win. That makes darts very sensitive to match fixing. ”