Former Godsent CS:GO Pro “Joel” Gets Suspends From ESIC Following Breaching Anti-Corruption Code

Former GODSENT CS:GO player Joel ‘Joel’ Holmlund was recently provisionally suspended by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). The reason for his suspension was stated as alleged breaches of its Anti-Corruption Code.

ESIC mentioned that between March 27th-28th, Joel placed bets on matches he was playing in. In addition to this, on March 31st the player also allegedly placed two bets against his own team in one of the matches. SImilarly, from March 29th-May 1st he placed as many as 17 bets on various CS:GO matches that were held.

The esports commission emphasized the fact that the breaches took place when Holmlund was actively playing for Swedish esports organisation Godsent. This was at the time when the team was playing at the  BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic and IEM Dallas 2023 Europe Closed Qualifier.

As a result of the recent suspension, Holmlund has been temporarily suspended from participating and competing in tournaments that are recognised ESIC members. The sanction duration has not been confirmed yet by the commission. ESIC announced that it will be making an additional statement in October 2023 once the outcome of the investigation is out. 

Holmlund was served with a Notice of Charge on August 30th on  which he denied the charges. This led to ESIC beginning to gather additional evidence. Although the suspension still stands, Holmlund has the chance to be able to prevent new evidence by October 6th if he wishes to be considered for reevaluation.

An excerpt of ESIC’s statement read: “Considering the gravity of the allegations, Mr. Holmlund’s current active participation in an ESIC-affiliated event, and being satisfied with the compelling evidence presented in its further investigation, ESIC has elected to suspend Mr. Holmlund via a Rejection Order Notice.”

As per what ESIC stated, the ongoing investigation into Holmlund’s charges has several things including examining digital footprints, such as IP addresses, device IDs, and browser information; records of individual bets placed during the specific events; as well as patterns of betting behaviour in comparison to professional participation. There are many other such factors that will be evaluated.  

ESIC was founded in 2015. It is a non-profit that strives to bolster integrity in esports throughout the world. The organization has joined hands with numerous betting companies, tournament operators, government bodies, and other esports stakeholders to suspect unsolicted behaviour and unlawful activities.

GODSENT also issued a statement on the matter on their official X (previously known as Twitter) handle. An excerpt from the post reads: “Joel’s suspension from Godsent followed us being informed of serious allegations relating to match-fixing and betting in between the 27th of March and the 1st of May, on our own and other matches, coming from relevant parties in the industry.

“As soon as we retrieved the information we immediately suspended Joel from play. Then we have been closely collaborating with ESIC in helping them build a case and collecting evidence in collaboration with third parties.”