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FA Investigating Suspicious Betting Patterns Linked to Arsenal Yellow Card
January 19, 2022
The English Football Association is looking into a yellow card received by an Arsenal player after bookmakers raised concerns with an "unusual" amount of money placed on the player getting booked during a Premier League match, per The Athletic's Joey D'Urso and James McNicholas.
"The FA is aware of the matter in question and is looking into it," it said in a statement to The Athletic.
The FA hasn't opened a formal investigation, however.
According to James Olley of ESPN, "It is understood that the FA's inquiries are initially focusing on betting patterns rather than any individual player's conduct."
While the player hasn't been revealed publicly, D'Urso and McNicholas reported that the publication "knows the identity of the player in question but has agreed not to reveal it at this time due to legal reasons."
The practice of betting on specific instances in a match like a particular player being booked is called spot betting, and spot fixing has become a problem for a number of leagues around the world, though the large wages paid to Premier League players has seemingly limited the practice in England's top league.
However, Olley reported that "the UK government has been examining the relationship between the sport and the betting sector, with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport expected to publish a white paper on a wide-ranging review of gambling laws early this year."
