Just who is potentially affected by this Elite XC scandal?
The sportsbooks and MMA bettors in Las Vegas. If Las Vegas thinks that fights are being fixed or manipulated, are they going to want to put any betting lines on the board for the public to place bets on? Maintaining the utmost credibility when it comes to fights in the United States is a major deal. That’s why fixing a fight or bribing a fight to manipulate the potential outcome of a fight is a felony and gets you jail time.
The stockholders of Pro Elite. Investors in Pro Elite cannot be happy right now, both with the current financial numbers the company has produced in 10k filings and also with this current scandal. An investigation into the company’s activity based on this scandal could be bad news for company management.
The MMA industry as a whole, particularly UFC. There are people inside the MMA industry who have spent their entire lives trying to build this sport up, only to now see the sport get a black eye because of the Kimbo Slice situation. Dana White justifiably should be upset with what is going on here. A match fixing or manipulating scandal could do legitimate damage to the credibility of Mixed Martial Arts in the United States.
The fans. There are plenty of boxing fans who now watch MMA because it’s a more exciting product. The last thing this business needs is boxing-style corruption seeping into this young, fresh industry that is gaining more and more steam. Fans deserve true, legitimate outcomes to fights.
How do you think CBS would feel about an SEC investigation into Pro Elite, given the amount of money that CBS has put into the company so far? It doesn’t matter if the amount of money is peanuts for CBS, the fact is that they put money into the company.