Gambling and Hockey in Sweden

It has always been a bit remarkable that gambling has had such a prominent place in the Swedish sports market. Ads for the gambling monopoly, Svenska Spel, owned by the government, are everywhere. Svenska Spel supports the national football team and is a major sponsor of the Elitserien. You can see how this might be a conflict of interest at best, and an opportunity for some serious graft at worst.

Well here is some more for you to chew on. A referree from the Elitserien is now a paid employee of a foreign gambling company. Not only is he working for a competitor to the Swedish government and its monopoly, he is working for a competitor to his boss! Furthermore, this is a man who can directly control the outcome of games, has a direct line to the odds makers, and obviously serves no interests but his own.

How can this sorry state of affairs continue? Easily. There are so many regulations and so many regulatory bodies that no one can do anything about this. He can probably not get fired, that is hard to do in Scandinavia.

What an embarassment. I strongly advise anyone thinking about gambling on the outcome of Swedish hockey games to check and see if Ulf Rönnmark is the referee. If so, ask him who he put his money on. And I say to Swedish Hockey, get your act together. Do not allow gambling in hockey, it destroys the integretiy of the sport.