The Sport and Recreation Alliance has been making this point for quite some time and in light of a new flurry of corruption cases in the media, thinks it’s high time we started to step these efforts up a gear.
This isn’t to say that work isn’t being done in this area: at national level, sports governing bodies are working harder than ever to ensure they have robust integrity rules, procedures and whistleblowing mechanisms in place.
Also, the Sports Betting Group (SBG) – led by the Alliance – was set up in 2010 to provide governing bodies with extra support. The group effectively lobbied to secure new legislation which will mean overseas betting operators will be legally obliged to share all betting intelligence with the Gambling Commission and sports governing bodies, making it easier to investigate suspicious patterns.
At a transnational level, the Council of Europe is drafting an international convention to combat match-fixing, while Interpol and Europol are working closely with international sporting federations like FIFA to educate participants and identify match-fixing networks.
But this isn’t enough. It has become a tiresome truism, but closer collaboration between all agencies is essential if we’re to win the battle against this multi-dimensional problem: sports bodies, law enforcement agencies, gambling regulators, betting operators and governments all have important roles to play.
During the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, a Joint Assessment Unit (JAU) was set up to collect, quickly assess and act on information relating to possible corrupt sports betting activity during the Games. The JAU brought together the International Olympic Committee, Gambling Commission and Metropolitan Police and was housed in the offices of UK Anti-Doping in London.
The initiative has been widely regarded as a great success and should be held up as an example of best practice moving forward. We should also look to Australia, which has been ahead of the curve when it comes to bravely and publicly acknowledging and tackling both doping and match fixing.
What’s clear is that tackling corruption in sport comes at a price and many sports bodies are struggling to find the funds needed to invest in integrity measures.
So what steps can we take? Firstly, the government should make a real and public commitment to tackling the match-fixing issue on a collaborative basis.
Secondly, funding should be made available for sports governing bodies to help pay costs associated with player education and additional staffing, as well as intelligence and monitoring.
And thirdly, sports should be more closely consulted when it comes to deciding the types of bets that are offered on their sports. With conflicting priorities and levels of resource, the match-fixing issue isn’t always straightforward, but it can be resolved with better collaboration and engagement by all parties involved.
One thing is for sure – we can’t move forward without real commitment from all the stakeholders involved and significant resources being made available to tackle the issue head on.