Malaysian Gangster Attempts to Fix Badminton Matches

Two Danish players told authorities that they were offered thousands of Euros to throw matches in upcoming badminton competitions.

Two Danish badminton stars, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup, reported to top officials in the sport that a Malaysian businessman offered them large sums of money in exchange for throwing matches, something which they refused to do.

The story is that an anonymous Malaysian businessman claiming to have fixed matches during the Singapore Open and Thomas Cup contacted each of them separately using a social media account. Vittingus said, “it’s against everything I stand for as a badminton player.”

Astrup claims that he was offered 3,000 Euros and expressed surprise that match-fixing continues to be a problem at the sports high levels, telling reporters, “Occasionally one sees results that seem unbelievable, but here there’s real evidence that match fixing takes place.”

Last major case happened in 2012

Match-fixing is a violation of anti-corruption and gambling laws in Malaysia and almost everywhere else, but there have been some high-profile cases in recent years.

In 2012 twelve female participants in badminton at the London Olympics were disqualified for deliberately losing matches during group competition.

The Malaysian Badminton Authority expressed gratitude for the two players for going public with story and pledged to continue to work toward stamping out corruption and match-fixing in the country. Despite restrictive gambling laws it is very popular to bet on sports in Malaysia.