Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport
therefore took advantage of the vulnerability of the world of sport to rig a large number of matches
and enrich itself on online sports betting sites.
The deregulated growth of sports betting in an environment where organised crime and corruption in
general are extensive, is particularly deadly for the world of sport. This phenomenon features on the
European continent in countries such as Albania, where football was very popular in the early 1990s.
The end of the Albanian dictatorial regime in the mid-1990s gave rise to some deregulation in the
economic and financial sector. Sports betting was also able to grow, and with it physical, then online
betting shops. As in Asia, criminal circles perceived substantial prospects of enrichment (and money
laundering) and rigged more and more matches, in such proportions that they exhausted the credibility
of Albanian football, which today no longer draws the crowds. Stadiums previously full of supporters
are now empty and falling into disrepair because sponsors no longer dare to invest in an area so
blighted by crime 81 .
Like the Albanian League, the Chinese, Malaysian and Singaporean Championships no longer bring in
any money, although they were extremely popular in the early 1990s. Sponsors and the media no
longer wish to support cheating, thereby contributing all the more to the deterioration of the
championships. China is an iconic example of this. Over the past two years, a succession of scandals
has led to the arrest of a number of referees and players, and several members of the Chinese Football
Federation, including the President himself 82 . In April 2011 the championship opened without its
principal sponsor - Pirelli - which had refused to renew its contract with the Chinese League 83 . The
national broadcaster, China Central Television, also refused to broadcast matches 84 . In Asia, the
plummeting popularity of local championships led the population to turn instead to European
competitions, which were perceived as cleaner and appeared to better preserve the uncertainties of
sport.
European sport, a new target for Asian betting
The infatuation of the general public with European competitions pushed Asian operators to diversify
their betting offering, and helped to swell the world betting market and concentrate its offering on
European sport. As a result, the prospect of profits encouraged certain Asian criminals to attempt to
corrupt matches in Europe, in order to then enrich themselves on the market in Asia. In 1994, the
Liverpool goal keeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, was accused of corruption, after having been filmed during
a meeting with a Malaysian businessman with whom he discussed the possibility of rigging matches.
He was found not guilty due to lack of evidence, but had to pay all legal costs because his dishonest
behaviour had been established 85 .
81 Interview with a retired Albanian football trainer, 28 June 2011.
82 http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/30796/
83 Chinese Football has Millions of Fans but no Sponsor by Michael John Scott :
http://madmikesamerica.com/2011/04/chinese-football-has-millions-of-fans-but-no-sponsor/
84 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12936084
85 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200102/ldjudgmt/jd021024/grobb-1.htm
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