The world of professional pétanque has been rocked by a bombshell: four stars in the sport have been arrested in Toulon, France, during an investigation into match-fixing, as reported by RMC Sport.
The players, Dylan Rocher, Henri Lacroix, Jean Feltain, and David "Ligan" Doerr, are suspected of deliberately losing a quarter-finals match during the seventh stage of the Masters tournament in Levallois-Perret on September 4, 2025, a competition not organised by the French Federation of Pétanque.
The National Gambling Authority in France (ANJ) investigated after discovering that "significant sums of money" had been wagered on the defeat of the team made Rocher-Doerr-Feltain, a top-level team, against a team of amateurs.
Nine people have been arrested, including the players as well as bettors and intermediaries, and will be tried in 2027 on charges of organised fraud and active or passive corruption. Toulon's prosecutors found that more than €13,000 were wagered on various sports bet websites, mainly in €50 tickets to avoid identification, and generated winnings of approximately €50,000. They also found links between the bettors and the players and police seized in €140,000 in cash or in bank accounts linked to the nine suspects.
Henri Lacroix, leader of the team, who didn't play that day but is also a suspect in the scheme, said in a statement that the case has affected his reputation, his family and daily life. "Living with the weight of stares, criticism, and judgments even before a court decision is reached is a suffering few can imagine". Lacroix, 51 years old, is a 13-time champion of the World Pétanque Championships, organised bi-annually by the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP).
