Prohibited betting in floorball leads to sanctions – Veikkaus will not file a report with the police
The Competition and Disciplinary Committee (KKR) of the Finnish Floorball Federation announced on Wednesday 3 December the sanctions related to prohibited betting. A total of 80 fixed-term competition bans were imposed on players and officials. The length of the bans ranges from roughly two months to around seven months.
The investigation was carried out over the summer by the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports (SUEK), which received extensive betting data related to the case from Veikkaus. SUEK submitted its report to the Floorball Federation’s Competition and Disciplinary Committee in the autumn, and the committee concluded its work at the beginning of December.
Men’s top-level floorball has not been available as a Veikkaus betting product during the investigation. It will, however, return to the betting list in the near future. Monitoring of betting markets and customer behavior will continue to be ongoing and thorough, as it is with all Veikkaus betting products.
– Based on the investigations, prohibited betting has been extensive and systematic in floorball. Now that the sanctions have been imposed, it is a good time to, in a sense, start from a clean slate. The violations have been serious, but we have not found any indications in the investigation of the issue we were most concerned about – potential match-fixing. That is extremely important, says Veikkaus’ Head of Security and Risk Management, Mikko Lahti.
With regard to the Finland–Norway match played at the 2024 World Championships, KKR has requested SUEK to conduct additional investigations concerning five individuals. This supplementary investigation will not be completed during the current year. The Floorball Federation and KKR will provide separate information on this at a later stage.
No report to the police
According to Lahti, as far as Veikkaus is concerned, the matter is now concluded with the decisions published on Wednesday. He also extends his thanks to the Floorball Federation, its Competition and Disciplinary Committee, and SUEK for their handling of the case.
– Despite the complexity of the overall situation, the process has been consistent, and it has been taken very seriously. Even though we have the readiness to react and take swift measures in response to abuses, we sincerely hope that we will never have to return to anything like this again, Lahti underlines.
– On the basis of the information we have received, we have also decided that we will not file a criminal report with the police in this case.
