Within the scope of the football betting investigation carried out by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 20 people, including Galatasaray football player Metehan Baltacı, Fenerbahçe football player Mert Hakan Yandaş, former Adana Demirspor President Murat Sancak, and Konyaspor football player Alassane Ndao, were arrested. Football players arrested in Istanbul within the scope of a football betting operation are accused of betting on the matches they played.
So, on which matches did the football players, including Mert Hakan Yandaş and Metehan Baltacı, place bets? DW Turkish examined the arrest warrants given in the second wave of the football betting investigation and which matches were bet on.
Charges against suspects
So, what are the details of the accusations against the arrested football players and club managers?
The suspects are charged with the 1st paragraph of the 11th article titled “match-fixing and incentive bonus” of the Law on the Prevention of Violence and Disorder in Sports. The article in question states:
“Any person who provides profit or other benefit to another person in order to influence the outcome of a particular sports competition is punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a judicial fine of up to twenty thousand days. The person to whom benefit is provided is also punished as a co-perpetrator for this crime. Even if an agreement has been reached regarding the provision of profit or other benefit, the penalty is imposed as if the crime was completed.”
Metehan Baltacı won 5 of 27 coupons
According to the file, Galatasaray’s arrested 23-year-old young player Metehan Baltacı has been registered as a member of the legal betting site called Nesine since 2021. According to the prosecutor’s office, Baltacı bet on 27 matches while he was at Galatasaray. These bets were placed as “GS will win and over 2.5 goals will be scored”. However, it was stated that Baltacı was not in the squad for 18 of these matches.
Baltacı lost 22 betting slips related to the matches played by Galatasaray, and won 5 betting slips related to 4 matches. The matches it won were the Galatasaray-Samsunspor matches played in 2023 in the Turkish Super League, Göztepe-Galatasaray and Kayserispor-Galatasaray matches played in 2021, and the Johnstone-Galatasaray match played within the scope of the UEFA Europa League Qualifiers.
Metehan Baltacı: I was not in the A team when I was betting
In his police statement, Metehan Baltacı said, “I placed the bets in 2021 while I was in the Galatasaray infrastructure. I was not in the A team.” Baltacı, who claimed that he played the other bets on the teams he was transferred to, claimed that “I never bet on the competitions of the team I played for.”
It was determined that Baltacı had created a WhatsApp group with his friends to place bets on his confiscated phone. In a correspondence in 2021, Metehan Baltacı wrote, “Gentlemen, is there a reliable coupon, I will bet with 6000,” “Hatay GS mutual goals are sure,” “1.60 odds,” “If I put 2-3 more matches,” “It will be 10000,” “I need to double the military salary.” Hatayspor won this match 3-0.
Again in 2024, when Baltacı was an Eyüpspor player, he suggested a coupon for this match to his friend in the form of “Urfa Eyüp kg”. In his defense, Baltacı stated that he was not in the squad due to his injury in the match between Urfaspor and Eyüpspor and said, “I did not make any guidance during the conversations knowing that there would be goals for both teams, it was just my guess.” Eyüpspor won this match 3-1.
In his statement, Baltacı argued that he had never engaged in match-fixing and said, “As seen in the message contents, I was asking my friends for teams in many coupons. If I were to match-fix, it would not be possible to have such correspondence.”
It was also determined that Baltacı logged in to illegal betting sites named tipo90, totobo and hooliganbet with his username and password. Baltacı said, “I don’t remember” about this.
109 betting charges against Fenerbahçe’s captain
Arrested 31-year-old Fenerbahçe captain Mert Hakan Yandaş was also accused of placing 109 legal bets on matches played by Fenerbahçe.
According to the prosecutor’s referral letter, Mert Hakan Yandaş transferred a total of 4 million 453 thousand TL in 517 transactions to the suspicious businessman Ersen Dikmen to place bets on his behalf between 2021 and 2025. According to the prosecutor, Ersen Dikmen sent the amounts from Yandaş to legal betting sites such as Bilyoner, Nesine and Misli in a short time. It was stated that Dikmen sent back a total of 2 million 60 thousand TL to Yandaş.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Ersen Dikmen deposited the money from Yandaş into 109 betting slips regarding the matches played by Fenerbahçe between 2021 and 2025 on the Bilyoner website. In these matches, 52 bets were “won” and 52 bets were “lost”. No results were reported for the other 5 coupons.
He played “İsmail Yüksek gets a card” in the Stuttgart match
Fenerbahçe defeated the German team Stuttgart, which it hosted on October 23, in the 3rd week of the UEFA Europa League, 1-0. Mert Hakan Yandaş sent 25 thousand TL to Ersen Dikmen two days before this match. On the same day, 25 thousand TL money was transferred from Ersen Dikmen’s account to Bilyoner. It was determined that Ersen Dikmen made three separate bet slips saying “İsmail Yüksek gets a card” regarding this match and won.
In the 90+7th minute of the match, Fenerbahçe’s İsmail Yüksek received a red card as a result of an argument between him and Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav.
Regarding the Slavia Prague-Fenerbahçe match on November 28, 2024, it was stated in the file that Ersen Dikmen made 15 separate betting slips saying “İsmail Yüksek makes at least 3 fouls” and won.
Mert Hakan Yandaş: I did not direct Fenerbahçe matches
Mert Hakan Yandaş denied the accusations during his interrogation. Yandaş said, “I loaned money to Ersen Dikmen” and added, “I certainly did not direct the Fenerbahçe football team’s coupons for their competitions.” However, on Yandaş’s confiscated phone, numerous match-related betting correspondences were found between him and Ersen Dikmen.
Illegal betting records with Fenerbahçe football players
Yandaş described the money transfer with 28 people, about whom he had intelligence information regarding illegal betting, as “ordinary money transfer”. However, photographs and correspondence were found in Mert Hakan Yandaş’s WhatsApp correspondence indicating that he was betting on illegal betting sites via computer. Records indicating that these correspondences were made with Fenerbahçe football players İrfan Can Kahveci, Cenk Tosun and Çağlar Söyüncü were entered into the file. The supporter defended himself as follows: “I did not place any illegal/legal bets, these were conversations and photos taken for entertainment and entertainment purposes.”
Ankaraspor-Nazillispor match ended in a draw
The reason for the arrest of Ankaraspor’s owner Ahmet Okatan and its President Mehmet Emin Katipoğlu was the match played between Ankaraspor and Nazilli Belediyespor, which compete in the TFF 2nd League, on April 28, 2024 and ended 0-0. In the referral letter, it was stated that with a draw score, it would be certain that Ankaraspor would qualify for the play offs and that Nazilli Belediyespor would remain in the league, and that the parties thus benefited from this score. It was claimed that the suspected club presidents agreed among themselves to have the match end in a draw in order to influence the outcome of the match.
Other football players arrested
Other football players arrested within the scope of the football betting investigation and the allegations against them are as follows:
Kerem Yusuf Sirkeci: Fatih Karagümrük football player. There is a membership registration on the legal betting site named Nesine. He bet on the Fenerbahçe-Fatih Karagümrük A.Ş match played on 19 October 2025 as “over 1.5” and on the Samsunspor-Fatih Karagümrük A.Ş match played on 21 September 2021 as “the opposing team will win”.
Emircan Çiçek: He plays for Pendik Spor. He is accused of placing bets on the Pendik Spor-Amed Spor match and the Erzurum Spor-Pendik Spor match in a way that “the opposing team will win” on a legal betting site named Nesine.
Yunus Emre Tekoğul: He plays in the Sakaryaspor football team. On October 5, 2024, he bet on the opponent team to win in the Fatih Karagümrük-Sakaryaspor match.
Bartu Kaya: Active football player in Amed SportifActivities Inc. While he was playing at Bornova 1877 Sportif A.Ş., he bet on the 1922 Konyaspor-Bornova 1877 match. While he was playing for Amed Spor on an illegal betting site, he placed a bet saying “3.5 goals will be scored” on a match. While he was playing for Şile Sports, he placed a bet on the opponent team to win in the Ordu Sports match.
