Former pro basketball player charged with match fixing, illegal betting

A recently retired professional basketball player was among 26 current and former athletes charged on Tuesday with fixing and placing illegal bets on sports games.

Police in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, said they have booked without physical detention a former player in the Korean Basketball League (KBL), surnamed Park, and a judo athlete surnamed Hwang for conspiring to fix a game earlier this year.

Separately, police nabbed 24 other current and active athletes in basketball, judo and wrestling for betting on games on illegal websites, also booking them without detention.

One of the 11 active basketball players has been identified as Kim Sun-hyung, a KBL All-Star guard for the SK Knights who allegedly made illegal bets as a college student.

Police added that three of the athletes compete for Sangmu, the military unit for athletes doing mandatory military service.

According to police, Hwang and Park became friends while they were both at Sangmu. Then in February this year, when Park played for the Samsung Thunders during the 2014-2015 season, Hwang bet against the Thunders and asked Park to help throw the game against the ET Land Elephants.

Police said Park threw air balls on purpose and the Thunders ended up losing the game, 69-47.

Park didn't score a point, while picking up an assist and a turnover in 10:24.

Police said Park and Hwang each wagered 3 million won ($2,500) and 1 million won. They added that Hwang had messaged other judo athletes about the scheme, but they haven't yet determined if those other athletes also placed bets on that game.

According to police, Hwang and Park acknowledged that they made illegal bets but denied they conspired to throw the KBL game.

The only legal form of sports betting in South Korea is through purchasing Sports Toto lottery tickets. Sports Toto offers odds on wins, ties, losses and final scores. A bettor can only wager up to 100,000 won per ticket, up to six times a day.

The game-fixing scandal is the latest black eye to the KBL, a league struggling to win over fans in light of earlier fixing cases. Two years ago, Kang Dong-hee became the first active coach in South Korean professional sports to be convicted of match-fixing charges. Earlier this year, Chun Chang-jin, another active coach, faced match-fixing allegations and was forced to resign while undergoing investigation.

Park is the first KBL player, active or retired, to be charged with taking part in a fixing scheme.

With the 2015-2016 season set to tip off Saturday, a league official said the KBL understands the gravity of the police investigation into the latest charges and that the league office will discuss punishments for the implicated players. (Yonhap)