Inside a Fixed Friendly - Strange Penalties & Stranger Referees

Over 150,000 euros were gambled on a friendly match between Danish and Lithuanian teams playing in Cyprus. We explain why these unsupervised friendlies are a dream for match-fixers.

The match clock hit 76 minutes. Danish club Lyngby Boldklub held a slim 2-1 lead over Lithuania’s FK Banga Gargzdai in their final training match in Cyprus on February 10, 2025. Then, the referee made a strange call—a penalty for Banga. But there was a problem: according to Lyngby’s head coach Morten Karlsen, the foul happened well outside the penalty area.

The linesman signaled for a free kick, but the referee overruled him and pointed to the spot. Banga converted the penalty. Suddenly, it was 2-2.

As this was happening, something was unfolding in the betting markets. The odds on Over 4.5 total goals for the match were seeing an extraordinary volume of bets, despite the scoreline not yet reaching that threshold. A betting exchange screenshot, widely shared on social media, revealed that €145,881 ($156,000) had been placed on Over 4.5 goals—a figure over 50 times higher than normal for such a match.

Some bookmakers reacted. By the 74th minute, major operators—including Crown—had removed the game from their markets, signaling suspected manipulation. But other bookmakers did not and the bets continued to roll in.

Was this the only incident?

Not in the slightest.