Interviews with dozens of players and officials are expected to begin as early as Thursday with the Organised Crime squad examining betting patterns on at least three NRL games to determine whether any criminal offences have been committed.

The announcement of the strike force, named Nuralda, came just two days before the NRL final series kicks off and followed preliminary inquiries by police, which began in June.

The investigation is expected to take between six to 12 months to complete and will involve the powerful NSW Crime Commission, which can summons any person to be questioned in private and where refusing to answer is a criminal offence.

Hayson is known to be close to several current and former members of the Manly Sea Eagles rugby league team. Manly is the common denominator in the three matches under investigation.

Last month Fairfax Media revealed the match between Parramatta and Manly played in April 2016 was being scrutinised by police and the NRL integrity unit after the emergence of an extraordinary betting trail linking organised crime figures, associates of Hayson and football playing brothers Kieran and Liam Foran.

Some of the winnings from a successful plunge on Parramatta to win the the match, in which Kieran Foran played for Parramatta, ended up in the TAB accounts of the Foran brothers.

With 10 minutes to go Manly were ahead 10-8. But in the dying minutes of the match Parramatta scored three quick tries, running out 22-10 victors.

The other matches being investigated by the police are two from 2015. One is a round 16 match between South Sydney and Manly that the Rabbitohs won 20-8, and a round 24 clash between Manly and Parramatta, which the Eels won 20-16.

The week before the South Sydney-Manly match, Hayson is alleged to have collected $500,000 in cash to bet on the match. The bet involved Souths winning by more than eight points.

Fairfax Media revealed in June that Hayson had instructed a jockey to bet $120,000 on the outcome of that particular match.

Hayson subsequently admitted he transferred $100,000 to his friend, the controversial Victorian jockey Danny Nikolic, last year to bet on an NRL match on his behalf.

However, Hayson told radio 2GB's Ben Fordham on Wednesday that he had checked with Nikolic, who confirmed no money had been waged on that match.

"We all laugh about it," Hayson told Fordham of the match fixing allegations. "The cops got sold a big lemon."

He denied fixing any matches, that any NRL player he knew would fix a match and said at the end of the investigation police would end up with "egg on their face".

"There wouldn't be six players over there that would cheat on their girlfriends let alone a match. That's how square the Manly boys are, it's a complete joke," he said.

Police sources said that they decided to announce the formation of a strike force because they realised as soon as they started interviewing rugby league players word would soon leak out.

The backbone of the strike force will consist of the 14 police officers who make up the Casino and Racing unit, which forms part of the State Crime Command's Organised Crime Squad.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said the NRL would support and provide any assistance requested by the investigation.

Greenberg said there was no place in the game for any person found to be involved in match fixing.

"We are not going to pre-judge any person associated with the game while this process is under way," he said.

"But I repeat my earlier warning that if any person is convicted of match fixing they will face a life ban from any involvement in rugby league."

Fairfax Media has been told interviews with people of interest will begin on Thursday, just a day before Brisbane and the Gold Coast open the NRL finals series at Suncorp Stadium.

Police will immediately start questioning dozens of players and officials, although there is no suggestion that those summoned have committed any offence.