USA Today: Replacement Referees Provide Perfect Ingredient for Game Fixing

Gambling experts claim that the current situation with replacement referees in the NFL has created an environment ripe for corruption, according to Robert Klemko of USA Today. 

NFL Handicapper and industry expert R.J. Bell of Pregame.com suggests there are plenty of opportunities for a replacement opportunity to throw a game.

"One hundred thousand dollars to fix a game is a lot of money to the regular officials, but if you compare that to their potential career earnings it's a very small amount of money," Bell told USA Today. "With the replacements, even $20,000 to fix a game is more than they stand to make from the NFL in their entire lives.

"There really is an economic model here that not only makes it possible, but very likely that someone will be corrupted."

Despite what is supposed to be a rigid screening process, that didn’t stop one replacement referee and self-proclaimed “New Orleans Saints fan” from nearly officiating a Saints game on Sunday.   The league pulled the plug last minute.

Another controversy occurred in preseason when replacement ref, Shannon Eastin, the first ever female to officiate an NFL game, was found to have took part in the World Series of Poker.  While the National Football League is dead set against any form of gambling, Eastin was ultimately given the green light to officiate games. 

For gamblers, there are some benefits these replacement referees provide that have less to do with corruption, and more to do with incompetence. 

Home teams are having near-unprecedented success in the season's first two weeks, Klemko observes.

Bell points to the influence of these substitute officials on totals betting.

"Pass interference penalties, which are some of the most drastic calls in terms of yardage, are getting called at a much higher rate," he says. "There were 43 pass interference penalties in first two weeks of 2012. The average over the prior three years is 24. That leads to more scoring and higher Vegas totals."

Here are your Week 3 NFL Lines….(subject to change - lock in here now)

Thu:

Tyrone Black, Gambling911.com