Declan Hill, D.Phil.

Declan Hill headshot
Associate Professor

Division of Government and Public Service, Investigations Program
Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences
Education

D.Phil., Oxford University
B.A, University of Toronto

About Declan

Declan Hill is a journalist, academic and consultant. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on match fixing and corruption in international sports. In 2008, Hill, as a Chevening Scholar, obtained his doctorate in Sociology at the University of Oxford.

His book ‘The Fix: Organized Crime and Soccer’ has appeared in twenty-one languages. Hill was the first person to show the new danger to international sport posed by the globalization of the gambling market and match-fixing at the highest levels of professional football (soccer) including the Champions League and FIFA World Cup tournaments. Part of the book details his involvement with an Asian match-fixing gang as they travelled around the world to fix major football matches.

Hill has also published a number of academic articles, was a reviewer for Global Integrity and has probed the impact of the Russian mafia on professional ice hockey in the NHL. In 2011, he pioneered the first on-line anti-match-fixing education course for Sport Accord that was eventually used by Interpol – the International Police Force.

Declan is also the host of the Crime Waves podcast, along with his students, as he interviews people at the center of the biggest investigations in the world: prosecutors, criminals, professors, corruptors, journalists, undercover investigators, policemen, Olympic Gold Medalists, and mobsters — all primary sources, all experts, and all people with firs t-hand knowledge of the criminal world.

www.crimewavespodcast.com

In his spare time, Hill is a keen amateur boxer and martial arts enthusiast. He leads groups of recreational and competitive fighters to train in Havana, Cuba. On March 31, 2012, Hill won a charity boxing match that was part of the historic Trudeau-Brazeau night – as part of Fight for the Cure in support the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

Hill speaks four languages – English, French, Spanish and (poor) Italian.

Publications

Declan Hill has written journal articles, book sections and an academic book Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing in Football to explain the new phenomenon of globalization and match-fixing in professional sports.

Hill’s other academic interests are corruption studies, organized crime and ‘informal governance’ – or the analysis of power structures in societies that are outside formal governments.

Hill is driven by evidence-based work: research methods should fit the topic that is being examined, rather than shaping the topic to use a favourite research method. Therefore, Hill uses both qualitative (interviews, text analysis) and quantitative methods (statistics) in his research.

Hill, D., Rasmussen, C., Vittorio, M., Myers, D., "Red-flagging the leagues: the U.S. Sports most in danger from match-fixing", Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, Volume 23, Pages 1774-1792, (2020), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430437.2020.1804114

Hill, D., "Jumping into Fixing", Trends in Organized Crime, Vol. 18, pages 212–228, (2015), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12117-014-9237-5?sa_campaign=email/event/articleAuthor/onlineFirst

Hill, D. "A critical mass of corruption: why some football leagues have more match-fixing than others", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, (2010), https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSMS-11-03-2010-B005/full/html

Hill, D., "How Gambling Corruptors Fix Football Matches", European Sport Management Quarterly, Volume 9, Pages 411-432, (2009), https://doi.org/10.1080/16184740903332018

Hill, D., "To fix or not to fix? How corruptors decide to fix football matches", Global Crime, Volume 10, Pages 157-177, (2009), https://doi.org/10.1080/17440570802543524

Books

Declan Hill. (2013). The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing in Football. Anne McDermid & Associates Ltd.

Declan Hill. (2008). The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime. McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

News and In the Media

In the Media

U.S. News & World Report: Signs of a Sports Betting Addiction

Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations, comments that the 2018 Supreme Court decision that outlawed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, “is possibly the most significant social change in America since the end of Prohibition. … America is dancing with the devil, and there’s been virtually no discussion about it.”

In the Media

News 8 WTNH: Nyberg: Professor talks about all things crime

Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations, discusses his ongoing work on hundreds year old cold case to find the remains of Matoaka, known to the world as Pocahontas. He talked about an episode of his CrimeWaves podcast in which he interviewed Dr. Henry C. Lee, renowned forensic scientist and founder of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, about a meeting with Wayne Newton, who requested Dr. Lee find the remains of Pocahontas.

In the Media

European Parliament: Fighting Corruption in Sports

Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations, spoke at a panel discussion in Strasburg on instituting a World Anti-Corruption Agency to mandate all types of corruption in sport, including match-fixing and abuse, and impose disciplinary sanctions.

In the Media

The Sports Examiner: Panorama

Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations, announced that the University’s Sports Integrity Center awarded its inaugural Noble Purpose for Sports Integrity Award to Canadian law professor Richard McLaren for his work investigating corruption, doping, and institutional governance issues through his McLaren Global Sports Solutions firm.

In the Media

Canada TV News: LIV Golf vs. PGA

Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations, talks about how the PGA is in significant trouble as LIV Golf players are getting hundreds of millions of dollars as human rights-challenged regimes use sports to divert attention.

In the Media

CNN: Russia Keeps Up Attacks Despite Pledge to Scale Back

Vahid Behzadan, assistant professor of cybersecurity, computer and electrical engineering; Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations; Olena Lennon, an adjunct professor of political science and international affairs; David Sacco, a practitioner in residence of finance; and Howard Stoffer, professor of national security and international affairs, took part in a panel discussion on the war in Ukraine and it’s impact. The special program was part of collaboration with WFSB, with the show airing on WFSB+ and WFSB’s Facebook page.

In the Media

Eyewitness News 3: ANSWER DESK SPECIAL REPORT TONIGHT: Crisis in Ukraine

Vahid Behzadan, assistant professor of cybersecurity, computer and electrical engineering; Declan Hill, associate professor of investigations; Olena Lennon, an adjunct professor of political science and international affairs; David Sacco, a practitioner in residence of finance; and Howard Stoffer, professor of national security and international affairs, took part in a panel discussion on the war in Ukraine and its impact. The special program was part of collaboration with WFSB, with the show airing on WFSB+ and WFSB’s Facebook page.