Up to now, the online gaming market was doing well in particular during the Olympic Games in London where wagers exploded reaching 19 million euros. In general, players bet on the victory of a sports person or a team and they know the amount they may win based on the odds and the money bet. In recent days, sports betting on handball has made the headlines. At the beginning nothing unusual : a handball match between the Cesson club and Montpellier. But the Francaise des Jeux asked questions when it noticed the abnormally high amounts of the bets. After a meticulous investigation, it made its suspicions known and believed that there had been fraud involved. So after the match thirteen players were taken in for questioning and charged with fraud. They are accused of rigging the match. Amongst them, the Karabatic brothers are the main suspects. They are accused of having forced their partners and some of their friends to bet against their team. The protagonists formally refute these accusations and deny any involvement. In their defence they insist that they didn’t play in that match. However Luka’s partner says that she was asked by her partner to bet with his money.
For the moment the judicial inquiry is continuing and one needs to wait a few days to discover the outcome of this affair which has shaken the sporting world and internet sports betting in particular. This isn’t a good year for the Karabatics and one can only wonder if the best handball player in the world will come out of this affair untouched. Nikola Karabatic, the ambassador for the sports betting site, legal in France, Betclic, won’t feature any more in publicity campaigns and other advertisements. Betclic will concentrate on its two other ambassadors, Marcel Desailly and Tony Parker to promote the Stephane Courbit Group’s brand.
