Match-fixing is rampant in the world of pro-sports and keeping organised crime out is a perennial problem. Will it be the same for pro gaming?
With the rise of esports comes a huge growth in esports betting, giving rise to organised syndicates muscling into the gaming arenas and looking to rig some of the biggest tournaments to earn some quick and dirty cash. And just like how the pandemic has forced businesses to adapt to the new normal, match-fixers have quickly moved into the exploding esports scene, after the pandemic shuttered professional sports in early 2020.
As we found out from our exclusive three-part series with a teammate of an esports match-fixer (Part I, Part II, Part III), match-fixing is more common and closer to us than we think.
But how hard is it to prevent pro players and their team officials from throwing away their games for money?
Who holds the banhammer?
The esports betting industry has been forecasted to reach over US$13b by 2025. With money like this, you can be sure that match-fixing will continue to be prevalent.
What needs to be done then is to look at how such games are regulated. This is when it gets tricky.
The first big obstacle to fixing the cheating problem is that there is no single governance body over esports.
To be sure, new federations are forming around the world to promote and regulate the rising sport. Two leading esports organisations – Tencent-backed Global Esports Federation in Singapore and the South Korea-based International eSports Federation – have vowed to take strides in combating match-fixing and improving the integrity of esports.
But more needs to be done.
An impartial party to investigate and sanction violations on behalf of its members is the best practice to curb match-fixing and cheating in the industry. After all, there have been cases where competition officials themselves have rigged the game.
An independent stepping up as the alpha of regulation
THE Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) is perhaps the only major organisation looking to be the de-facto esports watchdog.
Since 2016, the UK-headquartered ESIC has successfully prosecuted errant teams and handed over enforceable penalties and sanctions to curb offences such as match-fixing.
Among its list of successful interventions, the non-profit’s ban hammer suspended 37 individual Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team coaches in 2020 who abused the ‘spectator bug’ to gain an unfair advantage. It also sentenced 35 CS:GO pros in Australia this year to tournament bans ranging between one to five years for making betting-related offences.
Given that the lifecycle of pro gamers falls between six to eight years, this might be akin to a life sentence for the players.
The ESIC has also been working closely with the likes of law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Interpol to uncover match-fixing syndicates and dish out legal consequences to the offenders. More of such cooperation is necessary.
Recognition, multilateral cooperation needed
While ESIC had done much to clean up the game, it is unlikely to be the only solution
Here’s the problem: esports arenas and competitions are owned by private game publishers and tournament organisers – from the likes of Blizzard to Tencent. Unlike professional sports which are regulated by bodies from the likes of UEFA to EPL, this makes it a challenge to regulate if game publishers refuse to recognise and cooperate with ESIC or other regulatory bodies.
The solution, we believe, must be to get governments involved.
As esports grows in popularity and moves into the mainstream, more governments will start to recognise the importance of the industry. This will then give impetus to regulate esports betting in the same way the governments treat sports betting – with the long arm of the law.
It’s not going to be easy of course. But regulating the industry should be given an 80:20 rule: 80 per cent of the enforcement should be dedicated to 20 per cent of the industry.
This means looking closely at the most popular games, using AI and the community to monitor for discrepancies in play and then finally investigating when things turn up suspicious.
Will it work? Probably not all the time. But should it be done? Definitely, since millions of fans tune in to see professionals battling it out to the best of their ability. Any less and it’s almost certain that the loss of integrity will slowly bleed out supporters. And that’s the last thing anyone wants to see happen.
| A selection of high profile esports match-fixing scandals over the years 1. Arrow Gaming Scandal (2014) a. Position 2 Kok “ddz” Yi Liong, position 1 Fua “Lance” Hsien Wan and their manager were accused of betting against themselves (Dota 2 team) and subsequently, throwing matches to earn money. b. The Malaysian team was either banned or disqualified from tournaments (e.g. Synergy League, The Summit 2), before they eventually disbanded. 2. iBUYPOWER/North American Match-Fixing Scandal (2015) a. The CS:GO roster for iBUYPOWER, at the time, were hit with accusations of match-fixing due to the odd circumstances of their defeat from newbies NetcodeGuides. b. All members, except Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham, managers, NetcodeGuides founder were banned by Valve from all of their events. 3. Singapore’s 1st Match-Fixing Case (2021) a. 5 Members of Singaporean team Resurgence, now known as RSG, and 1 other player were issued varying bans from entering in Valorant-related competitions. b. Malcolm “Germsg” Chung initiated the bet and premeditated loss while paying 4 other team members with hush money. 4. Fall of a StarCraft 2 Star (2016) a. Lee “Life” Seung Hyun was on track to becoming the greatest Zerg player in the world and making a name for himself. b. He, however, may have flushed that down the drain when he was caught match-fixing 2 games for about USD$ 62,000. 5. Origins of the 322 meme (2013) a. Alexei “Solo” Berezin was a CIS player in Dota 2 for RoX.KIS’ team but he was responsible for one of the first gambling. b. He bet a measly USD$ 322 against his own team and subsequently lost intentionally. 6. Another Dota 2 Scandal (2021) a. In a minor incident, Meta4Pro, a European team, was in the DreamLeague Season 14 but they left during the lower division, on their own accord, when they were being investigated for match-fixing. 7. Valve bans Filipino Esports team (2021) a. Omega Esports was banned from all Valve-sponsored events due to the players’ engagement in match-fixing activities, kicking the team out of Valve’s DPC SEA 2021/22 Tour 1 Division I Regional League. |
