The “very high level” team had lost to “amateur” players: nine people in the pétanque world will be judged in June 2027 for rigged bets during a competition, the Toulon prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday.
The nine suspects are accused of having “participated in the organization of rigged sports bets, as part of the September 2025 pétanque Masters in Levallois-Perret”, in the Paris region, said the Toulon prosecutor, Raphaël Balland, in a press release.
There are “the three players of the losing team, as well as the bettors and the intermediaries”, specifies the prosecutor. “All of them contested the facts during their custody. »
However, “more than 13,000 euros had been bet in different sites of La Française des Jeux”, mainly in the surroundings of Toulon (Var). To avoid being spotted, the punters used 50 euro tickets.
Result of the games: “a very high level team lost to amateur players,” the magistrate further specifies.
The nine people incriminated, “working in the world of high-level pétanque”, are being prosecuted “in particular for organized gang fraud and active or passive corruption. »
They were arrested on Tuesday, across the country, after nine months of investigation following information from the National Games Authority (ANJ).
These nine people will be judged on June 14, 2027 before the Toulon criminal court and in particular face up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 euros.
The seizures made by investigators, in cash and from bank accounts, amount to “more than 140,000 euros”, the prosecutor further specifies.
