Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport
market, regulating the offering, fighting organised crime, law enforcement etc.). The Council of
Europe was a pioneer in mobilising states against the risk of sporting corruption, beginning work in
2009 on a recommendation that was adopted at ministerial level in September 2011 91 . The
recommendation calls on states to take every measure necessary to preserve sport. Pooling experience
and a adopting concerted approach between states is in effect the method that best conforms with the
interests of sporting organisations.
The European Union is also increasingly turning its attention towards the issue, and the Commission
on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety European Parliament s recently called for “a
European Agency for Sporting Integrity and Fairness to be established, with due regard for Articles 6,
83 and 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, whose remit would be to
coordinate the combating of fraud and corruption in sport and to combat doping, without prejudice to
the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency or to how it operates” (Auconie Report, June 2011) 92 .
Two focus areas were studied initially to enable an understanding of the phenomenon; on the one hand
the people involved in, and methods of, corrupting sport, and on the other the risks inherent in the
growth of sports betting. In the same vein, we are interested here in the countermeasures that should
be put in place to prevent the risk, firstly by focusing action on the protagonists (who range from
participants in sport to criminals), and secondly by turning attention to the regulation of sports betting
and the associated methods of surveillance and control. In both cases, the transnational nature of the
issue raises the challenge of international cooperation.
B. Targeted action against those involved in
corruption: from those at grassroots level to
organised crime
Those involved in corruption are part of a chain of command with a structure that varies according to
the nature of the corruption in question (isolated, systemic, exogenous etc.). On the one hand, there are
people from the world of sport, both on the field (players, referees, coaches) and in the wings (agents,
governance of sporting organisations). On the other hand are the criminals who infiltrate sport by
various means, either directly through players or referees, or through clubs in difficulty or weakened
national federations. They have large networks, particularly in the entourages of sportspeople, and a
distinct capacity for moving within various backgrounds.
91 91 Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to Member States of the Council of Europe on promoting the
integrity of sport to combat the manipulation of results, particularly arranged matches
92 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-
467.280+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
54