Turkish police detain 86 in İstanbul match-fixing and illegal betting probe

Turkish police have detained 86 suspects in coordinated raids across 24 provinces in an İstanbul-based investigation into alleged match-fixing, illegal betting and money laundering through cryptocurrency accounts. For PSPs, acquirers and banks, the detail that matters is not just the arrest count: the case shows how betting flows can be routed through crypto wallets, “pool accounts,” and commercial fronts before they become visible on a balance sheet.

1. The operation was carried out by the İstanbul Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit under the coordination of the Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Police said the network was allegedly coordinated by a suspect identified only by the initials İ.Ö.Ö.
2. According to police, the group generated revenue from matches whose outcomes had allegedly been agreed in advance, as well as from legal and illegal betting activities. The proceeds were allegedly transferred through cryptocurrency wallets and then moved to other wallets whose users could not be identified.
3. Investigators also said the network worked jointly with the owners of Kayalar Döviz, a foreign exchange and jewelry company operating in İstanbul’s Grand Bazaar, and used commercial entities as fronts. Police said it targeted people aged 20 to 30 who had no commercial activity or regular income, then sent around 100,000 Turkish lira ($2,500) into their bank accounts at regular intervals before using those accounts as “pool accounts” for illegal betting.
4. An examination of the suspects’ financial transactions found that even the account with the lowest transaction volume had reached 90 million lira ($1.9 million). Police said the total transaction volume uncovered in the investigation amounted to 192 billion lira ($4.1 billion).
5. Prosecutors also ordered the seizure of 83 movable and immovable assets valued at 350 million lira ($7.5 million), which were believed to have been obtained through criminal activity. Bank accounts and cryptocurrency accounts belonging to the suspects were also frozen.

The case comes as Turkey steps up its crackdown on illegal betting networks, which officials say have grown into a multibillion-dollar underground economy involving money laundering, cryptocurrency transfers and organized crime. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said in May that Turkey’s illegal betting market could be worth between $20 billion and $60 billion, while noting that the exact size is hard to pin down because the sector operates outside the legal system.