News is emerging about a match fixing incident arising from a recent LKL league game.
The encounter of interest was a game between Kaunas Zalgiris and Palanga Naglis. It is alleged that the players from Naglis bet against themselves and took the odds on a greater than 30 points spread.
Mindaugas Balčiūnas, General Secretary of the the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) said that for the moment the allegation of match fixing was still speculation, but if proved, the offenders will face the full wrath of the LKL.
He also praised the administration of the Palanga Naglis basketball team for raising their concerns and dealing with the situation in such a professional manner.
The administrators of Palanga Naglis notified bookmakers of suspicions that their players threw the match against Žalgiris after they played lacklustre defence in the final quarter when they were 28 points down, eventually losing to the LKL ladder leaders 103 - 66, and a margin greater than 30.
Bookmakers said it was odd that only a few percentage of bets were for a win of less than 30 points, while the vast majority of the 8,000 euros of domestic bets were for a win of 30 or more. All payments on the outcome of the game have been suspended.
The Naglis club has gathered video footage of the game and is conducting internal investigations. It is said they are talking to particular players about the incident.
Balčiūnas was keen to point out that this was the first such incident in the LKL.
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