Clayton Lewis leaves the Local Court in Sydney, NSW, for sentencing. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
New Zealand's time zone and poorly-paid players make it vulnerable to match-fixing, opening the door for bad actors to manipulate matches - and athletes.
New Zealand's national football competition, once only watched by family, friends, and a small clutch of fans, is suddenly awash with offshore gambling attention.
Matches are followed online by thousands of anonymous punters across Asia, South America, and Europe, who place real-time bets worth millions.
"I was really staggered to learn that [in] the men's national league - so that is our amateur competition here - huge amounts of money is being bet on this competition through these overseas gambling websites," RNZ In Depth sports correspondent Dana Johannsen tellsThe Detail.
"To clarify, this does not include the Phoenix or Auckland FC in the A League. These are teams like Birkenhead United and Western Springs.
"It's not unusual to see one million dollars dropped on a game - bet on just a single game in the league. So, $212 million a season, between 500 [thousand] and 1.4 million each game, it's incredible numbers.
"That doesn't mean that match fixing is happening, but what it does mean is it increases the risk, because when you have got this amount of money being wagered on a sport then the opportunity is there for betting corruption."
While there have been no proven cases of corruption here yet, Johannsen says international match fixers are targeting New Zealand players.
"I wouldn't say it is happening a lot, but I was really surprised at the rate it is occurring," she says.
"The New Zealand Professional Footballers' Association said they get maybe a handful of reports each year, but this is likely to be under-reported as well because, obviously, the concern is that people are giving in to this and therefore not going to report."
'Microbets' - where a bet is placed on anything from who will first touch the ball to which player will be sent off for a yellow card - are becoming increasingly popular on sports betting platforms.
"It's used as a device to hook people in, to keep them betting every couple of minutes and chase that adrenaline rush."
She says it is also "dangerously easy to fix" and that New Zealand football in particular is vulnerable to match-fixing and manipulation because of the time zone, underpaid players, the small league with little scrutiny, and betting operators eager for fresh markets.
Her investigation into the growing issue comes after a high-profile illegal betting court case in Australia involving a Kiwi football star.
Former All White Clayton Lewis was sentenced in Sydney last week for his role in an A-League spot-fixing scheme.
The Kiwi footballer avoided a conviction after he pleaded guilty in July to one charge of engaging in conduct that corrupts the betting outcome of an event.
His former Macarthur FC teammate and co-accused, Kearyn Baccus, received an identical sentence of a two-year community release order.
They both took part in a yellow-card manipulation scheme, in which they were paid $10,000 each to deliberately obtain a yellow card in a match against Sydney FC in December 2023.
"He [Lewis] was basically targeted because he was known to be a gambler, he was known to be influenceable," says Johannsen, who was in Sydney for the sentencing.
She says he was lured into the scheme at the last minute after the betters decided another yellow card was required during the game.
"There were so many sliding door moments within this story, but that's got to be the biggest one, literally a game day decision, and he agreed to do it."
So, he got the yellow card, scored the $10,000, but ultimately it proved an own goal.
Lewis now faces a lifetime ban from the game.
In a bid to protect the league here, Football New Zealand will continue to offer education programmes for players and monitor suspicious betting activity.
But it won't be easy. New Zealand football is firmly on the radar of the global betting industry, and the stakes couldn't be higher.
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