Snooker match-fixing: How much money did these lured players pay for their future?

The disciplinary committee of the World Professional Billy and Snooker Association (WPBSA) mentioned some interesting details of the match-fixing case in its specific investigation into the Chinese player match-fixing case.

In this match-fixing case, Liang Wenbo and Li Xing are undoubtedly the core figures, especially Liang Wenbo; It is also the bad plot of them wooing, soliciting, luring, and assisting players to participate in match-fixing gambling, which has become an important reason why they were banned for life by the WPBSA. Here's a look at how much "benefit fee" these two people gave to lure players into match-fixing?

【Case 1, Zhao Jianbo】

On August 26, 2022, in the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers, Zhao Jianbo will face Alan Hill.

A week before the match, Liang Wenbo approached Zhao Jianbo and asked him to play match-fixing, lose the match, and win no more than two games; The "benefit fee" is £4,000, or about 35,000 yuan at the current exchange rate. Liang Wenbo found Li Xing and Lu Ning at the same time and asked them to persuade Zhao Jianbo to play match-fixing. And Li Xing was the last to accompany Zhao Jianbo to the game, on the one hand, because Zhao Jianbo was not good at English, on the other hand, it is estimated that he also played match-fixing for Zhao Jianbo to encourage him. However, did Lu Ning know in advance, only Li Xing's testimony. And Lu Ning's testimony is that he knew it afterwards, because Lu Ning watched Zhao Jianbo's game and felt that it was tricky, so he only knew after asking Li Xing. For this reason, Liang Wenbo also gave Lu Ning a sum of money as a "pacification fee", because Lu Ning owed Zhao Jianbo money, and Lu Ning gave part of the "pacification fee" to Zhao Jianbo.

This match-fixing, the gang won £30,000. £9,000 was paid to a friend of Liang Wenbo, Liang Wenbo and Li Xing each received £5,000, Lu Ning received £3,000, and Zhao Jianbo received £8,000.

【Case 2, Chen Zifan】

The division of the stolen money in Case 1 is the most detailed in the investigation report. Several other cases mainly talked about the "benefit fee" associated with the enforcement of match-fixing players.

On August 9, 2022, Chen Zifan played against Thai female mink Wen Harutai in the British Open qualifying match.

Two days before the match, Li Xing found Chen Zifan and offered to play match-fixing, Chen Zifan wanted to deliberately lose a game to Wen Harutai for a game, and the "benefit fee" was 5,000-6,000 pounds, which was paid to him by Li Xing on behalf of Liang Wenbo. However, in the end, because Liang Wenbo was investigated, Chen Zifan did not receive the money.

【Case 3, Browning】

2022 British Open qualifying tournament (between August 9-14, the investigation report states that the main match on September 26, which should be wrong), Browning played against Zhao Xintong.

Liang Wenbo and Bai Langning said okay, Bai Langning can get 60,000 yuan for match-fixing. Liang Wenbo gave 30,000 yuan in advance. However, before the start of the match, Li Xing worried that the abnormal betting pattern on the match might be discovered, and urged Browning to give up match-fixing. Bai Langning eventually gave up and returned 30,000 yuan to Liang Wenbo. After the match, Bai Langning told his opponent Zhao Xintong about it. Browning lost the match 4-1.

Other cases will not be repeated. For example, Liang Wenbola Chang Bingyu played match-fixing, the cost was 50,000 yuan, Chang Bingyu played match-fixing (also the British Open) as instructed, but said that he didn't get the money in the end.

In these cases, the players who specifically implement match-fixing get or promise to get the fee, most of which is 50,000-60,000 yuan. As for how much money Liang Wenbo and Li Xing can get, it depends on the specific illegal profits and the number of people who share the stolen money behind the scenes.

During this period, they also lured Xu Si into the water, but Xu Si refused. They also sought out Cao Yupeng, but Cao Yupeng refused; This incident was later known by Cao Yupeng's wife, who was very angry and told Liang Wenbo not to look for Cao Yupeng again.

In general, those players who are wooed to play match-fixing actually have very limited income, which can only be said to ease the cost of living in the UK, but in the end they lose their professional prospects. Or maybe some players think they have no future.

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