Turkish courts have jailed 19 people in an expanding investigation into illegal betting in professional football, including Erden Timur, a former executive at Galatasaray, one of Turkey’s biggest clubs, whose case has been separated from the betting probe and transferred to prosecutors investigating alleged money laundering, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish edition reported on Tuesday.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the detentions followed coordinated raids in 11 provinces on December 26 targeting 29 suspects, including football players, club executives and officials linked to the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). Nineteen suspects were jailed, six were released under judicial supervision and four were freed after police questioning.
In addition to Timur, among those arrested were Fatih Kulaksız, an executive at Eyüpspor, an İstanbul club, and Buğra Cem İmamoğulları, an official at the TFF.
According to DW, Timur’s case had been separated from the core betting file and transferred to the Terrorism Crimes Bureau of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors find Timur’s financial transactions suspicious rather than finding him to have placed bets.
According to the prosecutor’s referral, a company co-owned by Timur transferred more than 144 million lira ($3.3 million) to a cryptocurrency platform in 2024 and 2025, with part of the funds allegedly routed to overseas crypto exchange accounts linked to businessman Akın Topal. Investigators also cited nearly 1 billion lira ($23.2 million) in transactions conducted through gold trading companies between 2023 and 2025, which prosecutors said could not be plausibly explained as ordinary borrowing or commercial activity.
In seeking Timur’s arrest, the prosecutor referred to the relevant articles of the Turkish Penal Code, citing the nature and seriousness of the alleged offense, the current state of the evidence, a Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) report and the statutory upper limit of the penalty.
Criminal probe accompanies sweeping disciplinary action in football
The latest arrests are part of a growing scandal that began earlier this year with claims of widespread betting activity among referees and match officials and later expanded to players and senior figures in Turkish football.
The Turkish Football Federation on Monday said it had referred 353 referees and 75 regional match observers to the Professional Football Disciplinary Board after concluding they had placed bets, in violation of federation rules banning football officials from gambling on matches or football-related activity.
The new referrals bring another wave of action inside Turkish football after the federation previously said it had suspended 149 referees and assistant referees and imposed bans on 1,024 players across all leagues as it reviewed betting activity.
Turkey has long battled illegal betting networks, and the country’s football authorities have treated betting by referees and match officials as a threat to match integrity, using disciplinary sanctions that can sideline officials and end assignments even before criminal courts reach a conclusion.