Match-fixing in professional sumo is an allegation that has plagued professional sumo for decades. Due to the amount of money changing hands depending on rank and prize money, there had been numerous reports of yaochō (八百長) (corruption, bout-fixing) in professional sumo for years before it was finally definitively proven to exist in 2011. The hierarchical structure of the sport, in which a minority of top-ranked wrestlers have great advantages in salary, privileges, and status over the lower-ranked wrestlers that make up the majority of sumo participants, may have contributed to the use of match-fixing in order to prolong careers for top-ranked wrestlers and assist in the distribution of promotions.[1][2]