joel denies ESIC allegations

Swedish esports athlete Joel "joel" Holmlund has denied accusations of betting against himself, which were published earlier today by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). The player reacted publicly via his Twitter account.

According to him, ESIC is accusing him of something he did not do and, following a conversation at the end of August, Integrity Commissioner Ian Smith decided not to take any further action. joel also mentioned that, together with his lawyer, he will prepare an official response by October 6.

The 30th of August I recieved a notice of charge from ESIC, I instantly jumped on a call with Ian Smith, head of ESIC. They then decided no further actions would be taken at that point of time. After my qualifcation to BLAST and several tweets from different induviduals I believe ESIC felt forced to act, and yesterday, the 19th of september, I recieved yet another, still the same notice of charge.

Today they decided to make a public statement, that is extremely injustice. They are accusing me of several stuff I didn't do, and that's fairly obvious, still, if I come out publicly with them I am breaking the confidentialty. I am still willing to cooperate With esic and will give my final answer around the 6 October together with my lawyer.

Today, September 20, ESIC issued a press release announcing the suspension of Holmlund for betting violations. It was reported that evidence had been found confirming numerous violations of the Commission's anti-corruption code. The subject of the investigation is the online tournament BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic 2023, during which Holmlund, competing for GODSENT, bet against himself.

Notably, GODSENT also made a public statement assuring that it was not involved in joel’s violations. According to published information, cooperation with the player was suspended immediately after the club received relevant evidence from ESIC.

Origin: twitter.com