Ukraine court case over EA FC match-fixing
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office sent an indictment to court on 30 October against three members of a cyber-football fixing group over deliberately thrown EA SPORTS FC matches. One player from the same circle, Serhii Kryvenko, has already pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say he took part in four fixed matches in ESports Battle Football, the round-the-clock tournament series produced by betting content provider BETER, played on FIFA, the series now known as EA SPORTS FC. Three of those matches were on 1 December 2022 and one on 18 March 2023.
He received 5,000 USDT through a cryptocurrency exchanger for the first three losses and $3,976 for the fourth, $8,976 in total, and was sentenced in July to two years of restricted liberty, suspended on probation. Prosecutors say the six-person group he belonged to, made up of an organiser, a co-organiser and four players, ran from November 2022 to October 2024 and bet on predetermined results at legal and illegal bookmakers, most of them registered in Asian countries.
In a second case, an indictment sent to court on 30 October charges a 28-year-old Kyiv resident who agreed results with players and paid them to lose so the rest of the group could collect the winnings. Searches were carried out in Spain and Germany in September with Interpol, Europol and local police involved, phones, computers and handwritten notes were seized, two more suspects have been notified of suspicion and an international wanted list is under consideration.
Nothing in either case alleges wrongdoing by BETER or ESportsBattle. ESIC's response is the part that matters for competitive players.
The Esports Integrity Commission, which accredited BETER with its Gold Standard in 2025, says the 2022 and 2023 incidents predate its relationship with the operator and were never reported to it, but it also states that a structure where one company produces the events, prices the betting markets and polices its own integrity creates integrity risks and potential conflicts requiring external scrutiny. ESIC adds that internal monitoring alone is insufficient to demonstrate compliance, that Gold Standard holders are reviewed annually and can lose accreditation, and that BETER has continued to meet the requirements.
Sources
The Esports Advocate
Cyber Police of Ukraine
Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine
