Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

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Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport order to provide their sport with the appropriate tools, and secondly those at grassroots level, athletes and referees, who are the preferred targets of the criminals. More generally, the issue arises of the proper governance of sports organisations. This is a vital precondition for preserving the values of sport. The shaky situation of some clubs, or some athletes, facilitates penetration by criminal elements. In parallel and a contrario, the massive injection of funds in some sports and generally the increased weight of short-term financial thinking are vehicles for risks to the integrity of sport 94 . Factoring risk into regulations It is important that sporting organisations incorporate in their regulations a prohibition against sports betting by participants who are directly involved in competitions and championships. This category of participants is broad, it includes all accredited individuals, athletes, judges and referees, employees and officials of sporting organisations, members of the organisation responsible for the competition and the entourages of all those people mentioned above 95 . These regulations must factor in two risks: on the one hand that of conflicts of interest when participants are in possession of privileged information, and on the other that of corruption in sport that directly concerns seeking to influence a match. � The risk of insider information covers information whose transmission could influence a third party to place a bet. Participants in sport are not always aware of the valuable nature of this information, which includes, for example, intelligence on the physical and mental state of players, or on strategies being considered by athletes management. This is all information that should not be publicly communicated. Participants in sport must be made fully aware of the reprehensible nature of the act of transmitting information to third parties or profiting from it themselves by betting on matches. � The risk of corruption in sport relates more directly to the manipulation of a result and the fact of having an attitude intended to influence the course or the result of a sporting event with the aim of deriving profit from it for oneself or a third party. A common approach by the sporting movement could be based on the following principles 96 : 94 The report by the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) published in 2009 entitled Money Laundering Through the Football Sector shows the general weaknesses of the football sector in respect of governance, which make it vulnerable to criminal activities, certainly money-laundering, but also people- and drug-trafficking, corruption and tax fraud. (http://www.fatfgafi.org/dataoecd/7/41/43216572.pdf) 95 According to the definition used in the common standards of SportAccord (http://www.sportaccord.com/multimedia/docs/2011/08/Model_Rules_on_Sports_Integrity_in_Relation_to_Sports_Bettin g.pdf). SportAccord is an association grouping together 100 international sports federations and its mission is to promote their common interests and share best practice in respect of regulating sport. 96 Code of Conduct on Sports Betting Integrity for Athletes and Officials, SportAccord. 56
Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport � know the rules (applied at all levels: championship, competition, club, federation, country of nationality) � never bet on one s own discipline � never share sensitive information � never fix an event � notify someone if approached These measures must be accompanied by disciplinary measures and the possibility of sanctions in order to have a genuinely deterrent effect on participants. FIFA recently banned some referees for life for their involvement in sports corruption 97 . The Bochum investigation is currently giving rise to multiple exchanges of information between the German Public Prosecutor s Office and UEFA, which is taking disciplinary measures as the facts unfold. A Ukrainian referee was also struck off in early 2011 98 . A referee may even be banned for life for not reporting that they have been approached. Betting and sharing privileged information are among the most difficult practices to control. In order to do so, sporting organisations must generate lists of names for whom betting is prohibited and this data must be able to be cross-checked against betting operators client files. This type of option is currently under consideration but requires substantial legal measures for the protection of personal data. Given that the sports betting market operates in a very similar way to an actual financial market, the fight against fraud could draw inspiration from tools used to combat stock market fraud / offences (see insert below, which sets out the three offences recognised in European regulations). The three stock market offences Directive 2003/6/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 28 January 2003 relating to insider trading and stock market manipulation sets as its principle that to protect the integrity of the financial markets and maintain public confidence, the national legislation of Member States should be supplemented by the introduction of three specific offences. The measures thus implemented are intended to combat insider trading, the manipulation of financial instruments and the spreading of false information with a view to manipulating markets. 1. Insider trading The offence is constituted when an individual acts in a certain manner because they have access to privileged information, i.e. to information of a precise nature that has not been made public and relates (directly or indirectly) to one or more issuers of financial instruments (or one or more financial instruments), and which, if it were made public, would be likely to have a significant effect on the prices of those financial instruments or on the price of related derivative financial instruments. 97 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14481355.stm 98 http://www.sport.fr/football/pUn-arbitre-ukrainien-banni-vie-206773.htm 57
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