Possible Manipulation of World Cup Games Found

A group that watches sports for cheating has found some problems with World Cup games.

This group, called the Group of Copenhagen, looked at all 104 games and found 15 that needed closer watching. They also looked at 12 big problems from a fairness point of view.

The Group of Copenhagen hasn't released its full report, but the New York Times said some of these problems are about the online prediction market Polymarket.

The report says $4.8 million was bet on Polymarket that Spain would not beat Cape Verde in their first game. The game was a surprise tie, and Spain went on to win the tournament. Cape Verde was playing its first World Cup game.

A more notable problem is a market on Polymarket about a red card given to a U.S. player, Folarin Balogun.

The report says a Polymarket market was opened on July 2, asking if Balogun would play against Belgium. But he got a red card that day and couldn't play.

However, on July 5, FIFA said Balogun could play, and his ban was suspended. President Trump said he had a call with FIFA's head, and U.S. officials worked to overturn the ban.

Did Trump officials use this information to make money on Polymarket? It's a good question, especially since Trump's teleprompter operator made money from trades on Kalshi.

Prediction markets have become very popular. Kalshi, a prediction market, said $1.2 billion was traded on its platform to predict the World Cup winner, and it got 3 million new users.

Experts say these problems don't necessarily mean cheating happened. FIFA worked with the Group of Copenhagen and said it didn't find any suspicious betting or match manipulation.

Topics include politics, sports, and the FIFA World Cup.

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