The esports Integrity Coalition was officially launched in London on Tuesday, with Ian Smith as the first esports Integrity Commissioner. ESIC is a not-for-profit members’ association. It is in response to the rapidly increasing threat of betting fraud arising from a burgeoning esports betting market (ESIC).
LIFETIME BAN: The Korean women's pro basketball league said Tuesday "it will mete out a lifetime ban to an American player who is suspected of forging documents."
Women's Korean Basketball League Commissioner Shin Sun-woo said after its board meeting that Chelsey Lee "will be suspended for life and her records in the league will be annulled." Lee's two agents, who are accused of forging Lee and her father's birth certificates last year, "will also face indefinite suspensions." During the '15-16 season, Lee, who claimed her paternal grandmother was Korean, "played for Bucheon KEB Hana Bank in the WKBL." The commissioner said that the WKBL "will scrap its rule on players of Korean descent." Under the league's regulations, foreigners who have Korean parents or grandparents "can play in the league as overseas Koreans" (YONHAP, 7/5).
CAS TO MAKE DECISION: Former Chicago and Boston marathon champion Rita Jeptoo "will know on Thursday if her appeal case launched at the Council of Arbitration for Sport to overturn a four-year ban for doping will be upheld."
On Monday, Jeptoo joined her former Managers Doctor Rosa and his son Federico in Nairobi for questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department. Though there was no official communication, the trio "spent better part of the day at the police department" (XINHUA, 7/5).
LEAGUE BRIEFS ...
The Korea Baseball Organization fined the Lotte Giants 10M won ($8,730) for their "inadequate player management, after outfielder Jim Adduci flunked a doping test." Adduci, a one-time MLB Texas Ranger, was suspended by the Korea Anti-Doping Agency "for 36 games last Friday after testing positive for oxycodone, a synthetic opiate." The Giants "promptly waived him" (YONHAP, 7/4).
Russian President Vladimir Putin and top security officials on Tuesday "discussed what extra legal steps may be needed to stamp out doping among Russian athletes." When describing what a meeting of Russia's Security Council had discussed, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said,
"The importance of introducing rules for investigative procedures for law enforcement was stressed (REUTERS, 7/5).
Finnish police "have released two members of Cuba’s national men’s volleyball team but are holding six others on suspicion of aggravated rape." Joni Lansipuro, the Central Finland Police Department officer in charge of the investigation, said that police requested that a regional court "order the six men to be remanded in custody to continue the investigation before any possible charges" (AP, 7/5).
