[Dave Birch] Last week’s British newspaper headlines about a top snooker player offering to throw frames for large amounts of Eastern European cash is only the latest in a long and increasingly frequent series of sports betting scandals. You may, for example, have been following an interesting story coming from Asia concerning corrupt practices, illegal gambling rackets and other malfeasance in a major sport. No, not cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL)…

Sports officials suspended the founding commissioner of a popular cricket league in India on Monday and asked him to respond to claims that he had rigged team auctions and improperly structured a broadcasting deal… The suspension is the latest development in what many analysts have described as the biggest scandal in Indian cricket since at least 2000, when several prominent players were accused of fixing matches.

[From Indian Premier League’s Chief Is Suspended in Cricket Scandal - NYTimes.com]

I’m not talking about the real world (as usual) but the virtual one. In Korea, there is a scandal just as big as the IPL one going on but it stems from people with broadband rather than balls.

The largest scandal in e-sports history is currently unfolding in Korea, with revelations that a number of current pro gamers are involved with match set-ups and illegal betting… the story is said to touch many A-list StarCraft celebrities – including sAviOr, Ja Mae Yoon – one of the best-known and most successful players of all time… At this stage, we hear that various pro gamers have been found intentionally losing matches, as well as leaking their team’s replay files to illegal gambling groups.

[From StarCraft cheating scandal rocks Korea « GamePron]

For those of you not familiar with the genre, Starcraft is a computer game from Blizzard (the same people behind World of Warcraft), but the players are spaceship pilots instead of wizards.

After its release, StarCraft rapidly grew in popularity in South Korea, establishing a successful pro-gaming scene. Professional gamers in South Korea are media celebrities, and StarCraft games are broadcast over three television channels dedicated to the professional gaming scene. Professional gamers in South Korea have gained television contracts, sponsorships, and tournament prizes, allowing one of the most famous players, Lim Yo-Hwan,to gain a fan club of over half a million people. One player, Lee Yun-Yeol, reported earnings in 2005 of US$200,000.

[From StarCraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Just to reiterate: there are three TV channels dedicated to this game! It must happen here too as the broadband penetration rises toward Korean levels, and while I can’t imagine turning on the TV to watch someone else playing World of Warcraft, I can at least see that it would be more interesting than the BBC’s Reithian triumph, “Hole in the Wall“.

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

[Dave Birch] In 1660, the English Parliament passed an act forbidding the export of gold or sliver, mistakenly thinking that exporting bullion made the nation poorer. After six months, His Majesties Council of Trade were petitioning the KIng and parliament to revoke the law, since not exporting bullion had, far from making the nation richer, made the nation considerably poorer. Such is the law of unintended consequences when it comes to politicians mucking up commerce. The effect of the law had been to persuade international trade to abandon London for various continental destinations: no merchants wanted to bring gold and silver into England if they couldn't get it out again, so there was no gold or silver around to settle transactions, so trade went where there was a working means of exchange. It always does.

Money is an enabler for trade. Whether in seventeenth century England, 21st century Zimbabwe or in the World of Warcraft. If there is a means of exchange, then trade will spring up on the back of it make everyone better off. What would we need to do to bring a new means of exchange into a new space like, for example, the Internet?

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.