Is There Match-Fixing in eSports?

The short answer to this question is – of course.

If you have been betting on sports online, you undoubtedly have seen the addition of eSports events to an immense number of Internet gambling platforms in the past decade, especially in the past five years. That said, people competing in video games is nothing novel, and it has been going on since the 1970s, with more organized tournaments starting to get run in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today, the eSports industry gets evaluated at $4.3 billion, estimated to keep growing at an annual rate of 7.10%, en route to hitting a projected sector volume of $5.7 billion over the next four years.

What is super interesting about the report citing these numbers is that it lists eSports betting as this sphere’s largest market segment, with a $2.5 billion slice of this industry’s revenues in 2024. Naturally, the primary reasons why this pastime has seen such a rise in such a short period are the ever-growing popularity of multiplayer video games and the global availability of gambling. That mix has been so powerful that an unregulated gambling subculture emerged around people competing in video games in the form of skins staking. A few of our highly-rated crypto sports betting hubs started as Counter-Strike skins wagering hubs before moving to accept a wider range of digital coins for wagering on eSports, athletic competitions, and entertainment-based events.

When eSports initially entered most sportsbooks’ betting folds, and online gambling operators started to offer these markets, they did not make much money from accepting bets on video game competitions. That was so because the wagering wasn’t very high, and the odds were not so great, given that many bettors were better informed about video game contests than operators. That has all changed now, and with the tremendous level of establishment eSports have achieved along with eSports wagering, match-fixing has been one of the dark spots of bookies accepting bets on video game events.

How & Why Does eSports Match-Fixing Occur

It works like in any regular athletic competition. Participants intentionally perform worse than they can to create a desirable outcome, serving gambling-related purposes. In short, a player deliberately throws a match for someone else’s gain or his own.  Like in traditional sports, financial benefit is often the primary motivator for this.

The reason why this is happening is eSports is a complex issue. It gets influenced by a regulatory gap, competitive pressures, and cultural factors, on top of monetary benefits. Because this is a somewhat young industry, its regulatory frameworks are not robust, leaving loopholes or lax enforcement of rules. That makes it easier for players to partake in unethical practices without facing severe consequences. Some choose to do this because they face intense pressure to perform but may not get compensated appropriately. Not only do they feel the heat from fans, but also from sponsors. The latter party may even go so far as to not play them their promised fee if they do not perform as expected. Believe it or not, such things even occur in some actual high-profile sports competitions, like the Greek basketball league, where teams such as Olympiacos have punished players by ducking their pay for bad showings. 

Moreover, as eSports betting has become increasingly popular, various nefarious parties have become involved in this activity and have begun tempting players/teams with bribes, something that previously was not a sizeable problem.

A general lack of awareness of the seriousness of match-fixing in this arena leaves competitors more susceptible to manipulation or coercion by external parties. Peer influence can also be a factor.  

eSports Match-Fixing Scandals

Without argument, the highest-profile eSports match-fixing scandal happened in 2010, when South Korean police began investigating sixteen people, including eleven professional StarCraft players, to lose competitive matches. The investigation revealed that these players got promised, and some received one million to 6.5 million won in exchange for deliberately losing StarCraft matches. All eleven implicated players got a life-long ban from the KeSPA – Korea e-Sports Association for their involvement in this case. These individuals also got fines, probation, and community service penalties through the Korean justice system.

Four years later, the eSports sphere got rocked with the iBUYPOWER and NetCodeGuides.com scandal, where the then-considered the best Counter-Strike North American team – iBUYPOWER drew suspicion for questionable and unsportsmanlike performances. The case got revealed via screenshots detailing conversations between players that stated that the favorite in the CEVO Professional Season 5 tournament was going to lose due to a fix. Half a year later, British eSports journalist – Richard Lewis published an expository article, revealing more decisive evidence regarding this case, which resulted in six North American players receiving bans from major CS tournaments.

The following year, in 2015, another StarCraft (2) scandal popped up in South Korea, uncovering that multiple Korean players had taken bribes to lose matches, including famed gamer YoDa, who alone got £17,000 for throwing four contests. The Korea e-Sports Association again had to deal with permanent suspensions, and this incident caused quite a stir in the competitive StarCraft community.

League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant, and FIFA competitions have had their eSports-fixing transgressions, but we do not have enough space to mention them in detail here. So, we will leave that for another time. We are only trying to illustrate here that eSports has been quite vulnerable to intentional match-throwing since this realm’s mainstream inception.

Combating eSports Cheating & Match-Fixing

The most common-sense step is threatening lifetime bans, hefty fines, and legal action for anyone found guilty of match-fixing. These days, most high-tier tournaments have incorporated robust measures against cheating. That especially is evident with the return to offline LAN events, making it easier to prevent unsavory behavior. Furthermore, data providers like Abios now play a crucial role in monitoring and detecting suspicious activities. Some have even partnered with Sportradar to use its Fraud Detection System to analyze data and flag irregular betting patterns and in-game behavior. That goes a long way in helping to identify and prevent cheating. On top of this, organizations like ESIC (Esports Integrity Commission) work with stakeholders to ensure a high level of industry integrity.

It goes without saying that education is also essential, and we must not fail to mention the rise of the ESCI, which got birthed in 2015, reshaping the eSports scene for the better by aiming to create a unified integrity framework for the sector. It is a non-profit looking to develop comprehensive rules and codes of conduct to oversee and ensure the integrity of eSports by preventing, investigating, and prosecuting all forms of cheating, including match manipulation and doping.

Top Bitcoin Betting Sites