The Finnish betting office, Veikkaus, has flagged several incidents of suspicious gambling activities on floorball games. The concerns include both players and officials betting on national team and club floorball matches.
On Tuesday, June 17, Veikkaus said that it had uncovered betting relating to a national game played in December, and a match in the F-Liiga top-tier national club competition, sharing its investigations with both the league and the Finnish Floorball Federation (SSBL).
The national game saw Finland playing Norway in the 2024 Men’s World Championship, where Veikkaus said inside details about the game were used in bets placed by several league players and officials outside the national team.
The league game had similar suspicious activity, with individuals with insider details from the Classic team placing bets against their own teams winning – similar to a recent UK basketball scandal.
The bets were first flagged as suspicious due to placing unusually large wagers, with Director of Security and Risk Management Mikko Lahti also explaining that some of these bets were made by accounts that had been otherwise inactive for a long time.
“Based on our investigations, it seems quite obvious that secret lineup information has been passed on and leaked from within the teams, before it has become public,” Lahti said. “Based on these, people with close connections to insiders have even placed completely exceptional bets for themselves before the lineup information was published, even against the team to which the bettor is connected.
“However, we are not aware that those who played in the matches in question or acted as officials listed in the minutes have placed bets on the matches.”
One player in particular bet tens of thousands of euros during the most recent season, with similar betting activity going back over the last couple of years.
What happens next in the world of floorball?
The investigation materials have now been passed over from Veikkaus to the Finnish Sports Ethics Centre (SUEK), with the SSBl and F-Liiga both planning to conduct their own investigations into the bets.
SSBL Executive Director Riku Tapio said he was “naturally disappointed” over the issue in a statement, noting that penalties are expected to be levelled against thsoe involved.
“We are truly sorry,” Tapio said. “This is against morality, ethics, rules and agreements. Our task is to ensure that these cases are investigated. After that, the clear goal is to ensure that this never happens again.
“Together with SUEK, we will do everything we can to find the culprits. After that, we will impose penalties on them.”
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
