Fixed Table Tennis Matches Bring Former Player AU$438K

A 41-year old Australian native and former table tennis player allegedly won AU$438,000 over 7 months last year by placing more than 1000 bets on fixed table tennis tournament matches before being arrested in December.

Betting on Rigged Table Tennis Matches

Adam Michael Green, who placed the bets with Australian online bookmakers from his home in Newcastle, has been raised multiple charges and the police have evidence against him spanning over 6500 pages, defense lawyer Drew Hamilton revealed to the Newcastle Local Court during the Friday hearing.

Adam Green, who did not attend the hearing, was charged with one count of betting with corrupt information for a sports event, one count of dealing with proceeds of crime with the intention to conceal, and two counts of providing corrupt information to other people knowing they would use it for betting purposes.

Green is accused of placing 1170 bets between May 16, 2020, and December 15, 2020, on information about fixed matches and fixed contingencies within matches from table tennis events in Eastern Europe, as well as dealing with proceeds of crime to the amount of AU$204,383.79 with the intent of concealing it.

Sharing Corrupt Information with Others

The police brief claims Adam Michael Green passed the information about the fixed matches to two other persons, Luke Savill from the UK, and his brother Matthew Green, knowing that both of them would use it for betting purposes.

In December, detectives from the Organized Crime Squad at the State Crime Command, with the collaboration of Sports Integrity Australia, set up Strike Force Brombal due to allegedly corrupt betting activities from a transnational gambling syndicate, and the investigation led to the arrest of the former leading table tennis player.

Sports Integrity Australia commenced operations last year, set up by the Australian Government as part of its sports integrity and strategy to have a single nationally coordinated organization to address all sport integrity issues, including use of prohibited substances and methods, abuse of children and other persons within a sporting environment, besides manipulation of sports competitions.

Last month Australian police, in collaboration with the FBI, arrested for match-fixing and illicit betting a number of Australian Counter-Strike players. According to the information provided by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC), the investigation which discovered the “classic match-fixing” issue was much deeper than expected and was spanning over to North America.