South Korea eSports Match Fixing Scandal Upsets Industry, Leads to Arrests

Yet another South Korea eSports match fixing scandal has upset the industry, revealed the sports’ vulnerability to tampering, and led to the arrests of twelve individuals linked to an allegedly corrupt StarCraft II team.

Early Monday South Korean gambling news reported that twelve individuals had been placed under arrest in connection to a match fixing scandal linked to local StarCraft II team Prime. Those arrested include Prime’s coach Gerrard (Park Wae-Wik), pro player YoDa (Choi Byeong-Heon), and team member BBoongBBoong (Choi Jong-Hyuk), all of whom have been banned for life from participating in sanctioned eSports matches. eSports journalist Enough (Seong Jun-mo) was also arrested for reportedly acting as a middleman for players and two financial backers tied to organized crime rings.

A total of five Proleague and Global StarCraft II League matches were allegedly manipulated, according to an investigation led by the Changwon Regional Prosecutor’s Office and the Korean eSports Assocation (KeSPA). They were tipped off to the scandal via an anonymous source.

Bribery of players led to South Korea eSports match fixing

Members of Prime were bribed into South Korea eSports match fixing. BBoongBbboong is reported to have received 5 million wons to fix a ProLeague match in January, while YoDa received 30 million wons for manipulating matches in February and April and Gerard 10 million wons for convincing his players to go rogue. Meanwhile the financial backers were said to have made 41.5 million wons betting on their fixed matches on online gambling sites in South Korea.

Cho Man Soo, the KeSPA director, said in a statement that his association continues its “zero-compromise” position on illegal internet betting in South Korea and the rigging of matches, both of which are becoming more common in the fast-growing eSports industry. Earlier this month the Electronic Sports League teamed with sports data specialists Sportradar to ensure anti-fraud, which CEO Raif Reichert called eSports’ “most important challenge”.