Seven CS:GO Players Banned By ESIC For Breaching Betting Legislation
The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has banned seven CounterStrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) players for 12 months for betting on competitive matches.
All seven players compete in the Mountain Dew League (MDL), which is played in Australia, with players being found to have placed bets on the league and even games that they have played in.
The seven names include two of Team Rooster's roster in Akram “Akram” Smida and Corey “Netik” Brown, with a further three being on their reserve side - Team Rooster 2. Damian “JD/The Real Goat” Simonovic, Carlos “Rackem” Jefferys and Joshua “Jhd” Hough-Devine are amongst the banned players coming from the same organisation.
Ground Zero's Daryl “Mayker” May and Team Lakers Stephen “Sjanastasi” Anastasi complete the list, with all seven receiving the same 12-month suspension from competitive CS:GO.
The ban spans across all events that are organised or promoted by ESIC members, which include all tournaments held by ESL, DreamHack, WePlay, and BLAST.
Click to enlargeThe investigation has been ongoing for approximately 18 months, according to the commission themselves. ESIC received several suspicious bet alerts through their "global integrity monitoring framework" which launched an initial investigation into match-fixing.
After announcing the punishment, ESIC's official report stated: “Without a unified understanding of the implications of inappropriate betting behaviour and observance of anti-corruption mechanisms, esports runs the risk of facilitating attractive fraud opportunities for bad actors.
“Accordingly, it is important that professional players understand that breaches of ESIC’s Anti-Corruption Code are a serious concern.
“It is crucially important that professional players (at the very least) abstain from placing bets on the game in which they earn an income from in order to preserve the integrity of the esports landscape internationally and mitigate the potential for bad actors to take advantage of our sport.”
ESIC has now concluded two huge investigations in as many months, and continue to ensure the CS:GO can run with as much competitive integrity as possible.
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Image via ESIC | ESL
