17 football matches in Germany’s lower leagues on suspicion of manipulation in connection with sports betting platforms. The police in Germany have confirmed this.
In the western states of Hesse and Saarland, authorities said they were looking into noticeable matches in their jurisdictions. Meanwhile, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said it is acting as the central coordinator in the process.
Initial investigations have followed recent reporting by the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper. This is according to which matches from professional third division or 3. Since November 2022, someone may have manipulated Germany’s semi-professional fourth-tier Regionalliga and amateur fifth-tier Oberliga for gambling purposes.
Authorities said they are looking into suspicious refereeing decisions in the 17 games in question. Apart from this, unusual behavior from goalkeepers and defenders.
Discussions with the manipulators allegedly occurred digitally on the dark web. The chat logs reportedly show that someone intended to pay illegally obtained winnings in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper previously reported that during two incidents in the local fifth-tier Oberliga Hamburg, people discovered so-called data scouts relaying live information from games to betting platforms. Once the authorities ordered these scouts to leave, the platforms stopped accepting bets on the games.
The German Football Association or DFB said it had no concrete evidence but was in contact with the authorities as well as Genius Sports, its own monitoring partner. It said that further comment is not possible due to the ongoing investigations.
Even though the relevant legislation does not extend to foreign betting firms, betting on amateur sports is illegal in Germany.
Public prosecutors opened an investigation into an unusually high number of bets placed on a fourth-tier match that involves FSV Frankfurt in late 2023. It follows a tip-off from a betting company.
