Five Australian men charged with match-fixing in CS:GO

The Victoria police in Australia have finally released a report detailing the arrest of five men with regard to a charge of match-fixing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These charges follow a six-month investigation involving six men arrested. While it appears that one person has been released of charges, four 20-year-olds and one 27-year-old has been charged with multiple criminal offenses and will appear in court as soon as September 2020.

Backstory on the event

The Australian police first began their investigation in 2019. They received notice from a betting agency about activity connected to CS:GO. Upon beginning the investigation, police suspected that the four players were “arranging to throw matches and subsequently placing bets on those matches.” Following months of investigations that finally resolved in raids in the states of West Australia and Victoria, the culprits were brought to task. Now they are officially charged as well.

The darker side of esports

Match fixing is unfortunately a part of both traditional sports and esports. Getting away with it is another story entirely. All five individuals charged were obviously part of the same CS:GO team. So it’s natural that they would bet against themselves via a betting service.

According to Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson, the police believe that as much as $30,000 was won due to these match fixings.

The charges and time faced

All five men are charged with various counts of “use of corrupt conduct information for betting purposes.” One 20-year-old from Mill Park was given the additional charge of engaging ‘in conduct that corrupts or would corrupt a betting outcome of an event or event contingency” in addition to possessing cannabis, which is still illegal in Australia.

As a result of these charges, the CS:GO players could all face upward of 10 years of jail time.

Ryan Goodrich

Ryan has been writing since long before he could even write. He's written resumes, software user guides, consumer electronic reviews, and myriad web content spanning a variety of industries. But now he's writing about video games, which is much more interesting.

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