South Korea launches match-fixing, illegal gambling probe

South Korean police has launched a match-fixing and illegal gambling probe involving 11 basketball players in the top-tier Korean Basketball League.

Head of the cybercrimes division at Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency Park Min-soon said Tuesday that the probe has been triggered by an alleged game-rigging incident in February when Samsung Thunders player intentionally missed shots to lose the game, a game in which he placed 1 million Korean won ($830) on his team losingagainst the ET Land Elephants.

Kim Sun-Hyung, a Seoul SK Knights player who recently represented South Korea in the William Jones Cup basketball tournament in Taiwan, was among the 26 current and retired players—11 in basketball, 12 in judo and 1 in wrestling— are being investigated for alleged gambling on sports fixturesin basketball, football, and baseball games using illegal Internet betting sites from 2009 to 2015.

The names of the players have yet to be released but the police plans to send the case to prosecutors for possible indictment.