Esports Betting On The Rise Despite Match Fixing History

• Esports betting is expected to double in 2020 compared to 2019.
• Esports betting has had many match fixing scandals over the past few years.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Esports betting may be on the rise, but the activity has had its shaky history of match fixing in the past.

In Australia, legal sports betting is a fully regulated industry. Because of this, there are many forms of betting that people in Australia can participate in.

With all the time developed into sports betting in Australia, they also have esports betting available. Because esports betting has been around Australia for a while, law enforcement had to stamp out match fixing in the past.

Match Fixing In Australia

In 2019, six professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) players were arrested for match fixing. The arrested were playing in a CS:GO tournament themselves and they threw various matches in the tournament.

With the matches they have thrown, they bet against themselves to make a profit. Five league matches were suspected to have been affected by the match fixing, thus altering the results of the tournament.

The police in Victoria, Australia were alerted by the bookmakers who initially took their bets. They were flagged as suspicious and police began their investigation. Now the six men, one as young as 19-years-old, face potentially 10 years in prison for match fixing.

A Stigma To Fight

Match fixing is not uncommon in esports. In various games, there are reports about players or teams that have thrown games in the past. These various reports have had several young professional gamers for throwing matches.

Thanks to that, it is more difficult to convince lawmakers that esports betting is something to invest in. But leagues and commissions have been doing a better job on educating young players about the dangers of match fixing.

“It won’t be possible to fully eliminate illegal betting and match-fixing,” said Stephen Hanna, an Australia-based director at the Esports Integrity Commission. “It’s about limiting its position in the market to the greatest extent possible.”

Despite the shady history, esports is more popular than ever, especially due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Esports betting and esports are expected to double its profits in 2020 compared to 2019.

News tags: Australia | Coronavirus | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | COVID-19 | CS:GO | eSports | Esports Integrity Commission | Match Fixing