25 professional football players placed bet on their own matches, tournaments

Over the past months, 25 professional football players gambled on matches in which they played themselves or on their own tournaments - a criminal offense under football regulations. It concerns six players from the Eredivisie and 19 from the first division. Two amateur footballers from the second division also bet on themselves, NOS reports based on a trend analysis by the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU), a reporting center of the Gambling Authority for signals of match-fixing.

The SBIU received 40 reports about possible match-fixing between October 2021 and December 2022. Twelve involved suspicious betting on foreign matches. Almost all the other cases involved football professionals gambling suspiciously.

According to the trade union for professional footballers, VVCS, most of these suspicious bets were placed out of ignorance rather than malicious intent. Since November, the union has been visiting clubs to inform them about the gambling rules and the dangers of match-fixing. At almost every club, there was a player who bet on their own matches or tournament. The VVCS also found that players are often approached online to manipulate matches for money.

“Betting on matches in your own tournament is explicitly against football regulations,” the Dutch football association KNVB said to NOS. It is aware of the 27 reports of players doing so but had no further details it could share.

Dutch laws don't allow betting offices to share information about player names, matches, and bets with the KNVB. “Sports clubs only receive an anonymous signal and don’t know which player is involved,” the KNVB said. “Due to this lack of information, we cannot investigate further or initiate disciplinary proceedings.”

The Gambling Authority reports suspicious betting to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The government agency is responsible for investigating these reports. According to the FIU, all 27 football players have been investigated. Some cases were so suspicious that the FIU forwarded them to the police for further investigation. It would not give the broadcaster exact numbers.