ESIC says there are 15 ongoing investigations into match-fixing allegations in ESEA MDL

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) will provide an update in four weeks.

Image via ESEA

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has been investigating allegations of match-fixing at ESEA MDL, the CS:GO league that gives access to ESL Pro League, for the past 18 months, the organization announced today.

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The investigation began after ESIC received suspicious bet alerts through its global integrity monitoring framework. As of today, ESIC is maintaining 15 ongoing investigations into match-fixing allegations, which the commision consider to be of “significant concern to the industry.”

ESIC announced the investigations because it’ll begin to finalize them and was worried about social media speculation. The esports watchdog said that investigations about match-fixing are complex and require “significant cooperation between a variety of international stakeholders comprising of betting operators, government bodies, law enforcement agencies, and industry stakeholders.”

Investigations into match-fixing allegations take significant time since they can also coincide with aspects of criminal liability, according to ESIC. The last big match-fixing case took place over a year ago in Australia. Six people were arrested for allegedly arranging to throw matches and subsequently placing bets on those matches.

ESIC has been using “various investigative tools” and contacts to link people who have placed suspicious or unusual bets to players or teams potentially involved in match manipulation.

If everything goes to plan, ESIC will provide another update in the span of four weeks, which is subject to complications within the investigation.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.