Two men in the Indian city of Jaipur were arrested following the discovery of a betting ring allegedly targeting European Cricket Network (ECN) matches. The Jaipur Police Commissionerate also seized laptops, mobile phones and approximately Rs. 1,000,000 (~$13,000 USD) used by those involved in the illegal activity.
In a strongly worded statement on ecn.cricket, ECN founder Daniel Weston said: “Protecting and educating European cricketers, clubs, Federations and officials from corruption on the field remains our highest priority. Off the field, we are also making use of the latest in big data analytical software tools to help us fight to keep cricket clean. When we have sufficient data and evidence, we pass it onto the police. T10 is about making the game faster and more entertaining, so as soon as batsman are blocking balls and not showing intent to score, blatantly underperforming and wastefully bowling significant amounts of extras, alarm bells start to ring for our investigative team.”
“It takes time during and after the review of matches to find potential offenders, but we will leave no stone unturned in our endeavours to uncover corruption and uphold cricket’s integrity in Europe. Along with the news today of arrests, further and fresh investigations are already underway from recent matches that have taken place. We have a committed team of people monitoring each match and tracking betting markets and other data feeds for irregularities. This includes a variety of elements which is used to analyse specific passages of play, players and teams, which together alerts us to moments in the match to question and look closer at. We will seek evidence and pursue investigations, liaising with the relevant police body with our findings concerning any reports, irregularities, concerns and suspicions. Punishments will be severe, including police criminal proceedings which may result in jail, and we will not hesitate to ban and black-list players, clubs, officials and participants as we strive for corruption free cricket. Our goal is to make and keep European cricket clean. We will take every step necessary and not deviate from this goal.”
The number of games live streamed from Associate nations has increased in recent months. With it, there comes an increased risk of illegal betting and attempted match fixing. For this reason, the ECN has recently expanded its Anti-Corruption Unit in an effort to identify illegal activity and provide a corruption-free environment for those playing in ECN events.
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