As Las Vegas moves closer and closer to governor Brian Sandoval’s dream of making Vegas the esports capital of the world, it is important to look at the pitfalls of the Korean esports scene which is considered a decade ahead of the US esports scene. On January 29, 2016 esports fans around the world were left speechless when “Life,” one of the greatest Starcraft 2 players of all time, was arrested by the Changwon prosecutor’s office for esports match fixing.
Over a period of a few months an investigation uncovered a large scale network of gambling brokers, financial backers, pro-gamers and even a Starcraft 2 coach who were all tied to illegal esports match fixing in Korea Starcraft 2 tournaments. Dozens were sentenced averaging 18 months jail time, 3 year suspensions, and up to $30,000 fines and still pending further lawsuits for damages by Kespa, the main Korean Starcraft 2 league.
In November 2016 Las Vegas took its first legal esports bets at the Downtown Grand through William Hill, and esports betting looks to become more and more normalized for Nevada residents going into 2017.
Esports gambling has already been common place for a long time throughout the rest of the world though, so what is taking the Nevada Gaming Control Board so long to approve large scale betting on esports in Nevada?
The Problem with Betting on Esports
Looking into the history of the esports match fixing scandals in Korea, it seems that this phenomena is much less about Korean culture and everything to do with susceptibility to bribery when prize pools are small and teams can no longer afford to pay salaries to their players.
Gerrard was the coach of the struggling Starcraft 2 team “Prime” that was at the point of dismantling and was even withholding players’ wages because of a lack of results and sponsors. Gambling brokers first approached Gerrard as sponsors wanting to help the team, one of which was “Enough” a former pro-gamer who had become a journalist and broadcast host. Gerrard then introduced the gambling brokers to his team members “Yoda” and “BboongBBoong.” Players were bribed with up to $30,000 for match fixing, easily enough to compensate for the withheld salaries.
According to “Total Biscuit,” owner of pro team Axiom, it was very common for pro players to be approached and offered money for match fixing. Many bets on matches were even voided by PinnacleSports, an online betting website, because of highly suspicious betting suggesting that many players were likely to be participating in match fixing who were never caught or arrested.
After the large clean up of match fixing in 2015 and 2016 the Starcraft league owner Kespa issued lifetime bans to all convicted match fixers giving players a heavy incentive to turn down solicitation from the brokers. Check out TeamLiquid for the full story on the SC2 scandals.
A Brighter Future For Esports
Match fixing is not unique to Korea and is not unique to esports. Match fixing cheapens the competition and the integrity of the game, the players, and the experience of the fans. As esports are in their early years when prize pools aren’t always millions of dollars and teams struggle just to pay their players living wages there will always be more incentive for this type of bribery and foul play.
As esports fans we can support our teams as much as possible and look forward to the days that esports see the same scope and grandeur that we see now in traditional sports, and hopefully esports match fixing will all but be a thing of the past.