The Finnish Floorball Federation recently issued the largest fine in history, due to a suspicious betting investigation, imposing a ban on 80 players. However, the final conclusion of the investigation ruled out the possibility of match-fixing, and these penalties all stemmed from the players violating the clear ban on betting in the country's top league.
The largest scale of penalties in history has been implemented, and the identities of the involved players remain confidential
According to the investigation results of the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports (SUEK), the Federation's Competition and Discipline Group (KKR) imposed graded penalties on the involved personnel. It might be hard to believe, but a total of 80 players were banned from competing, most of whom (73 people) are banned until January 28, 2026, with another 5 banned until the end of February, and even two "ball monitors" are banned until March and June of next year. Despite the severe penalties, the federation decided not to disclose the names of these players, considering that public shaming would bring disproportionate additional punishment, based on EU data protection principles.
The investigation began with abnormal betting, with Veikkaus being the first to sound the alarm
The whole incident came to light in June this year, when the Finnish state-owned gambling company Veikkaus issued an alert. They noticed that for a certain F-Liiga playoff and a 2024 Finland vs. Norway men's world championship game, the betting amounts were significantly higher than usual, and some long-dormant accounts suddenly became active. This directly triggered an in-depth investigation by SUEK. A total of 115 people were reviewed in the investigation, besides those who were penalized, 7 cases were dismissed due to exceeding the time limit, 20 were found not to have violated the betting ban, and another 5 are still under investigation. Veikkaus had suspended the betting market for Finland's top men's floorball in September due to this.
The industry's reputation has been damaged, and all parties call for "turning a new page"
This scandal has brought a heavy reputation hit to the sport. F-Liiga CEO Kimmo Nurminen openly stated that the incident caused "significant reputation damage," but he emphasized that these historically severe penalties were "sufficient judgment" for the breach of contract. Veikkaus's risk management director Miko Lahti welcomed the decision on the penalties and called for a "new chapter" for Finnish floorball. He particularly pointed out that the investigation found no evidence of the most concerning match manipulation, which is "a very important point." This incident also highlighted the importance of sports integrity to the betting market, and more global sports regulatory dynamics can be obtained on the PASA official website.
————
This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leader," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep channel for gambling:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
