The Victoria Police have arrested Counter-Strike Global Offensive players over match fixing and are investigating organised crime ties to an Overwatch Contenders Australia team, the ABC reports.
The ABC’s 7.30 reports that Victoria Police believe as much as $30,000 AUD has been won from fixed Counter-Strike matches. Already, six arrests connected to the match fixing have been made across Victoria and Western Australia, with five of those individuals being men aged 20 or younger with no prior criminal history. Two semi-professional Counter-Strike players have been arrested but not yet charged, the report states.
Victoria Police believes “dozens more people” could be arrested as part of the ongoing investigation, and issued a statement to the ABC that confirmed the force is also investigating criminal links to an Overwatch Contenders Australia team as a result of a series of “betting anomalies” that “have been reported on matches involving that team.”
“There is no test of a fit and proper person to be engaged as an owner of an esports team,” Assistant Commissioner of the Victoria Police, Neil Paterson, told the ABC.
“We are seeing people encroach on that area that have reputations that [mean they] probably … shouldn’t be involved in this part of esports. I could absolutely guarantee that this wouldn’t be the only [alleged] incidence of match fixing or betting anomalies on esports environments in the Australian market.”
We’ll update this story as more is learned.
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