Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport
The use of the privileged information may consist of the acquisition or transfer of financial
instruments when the party concerned knew, or ought to have known, that the information held was of
a privileged nature. In this respect, the competent authorities must determine what a normal and
reasonable person knew or ought to have known given the circumstances.
2.Market manipulation
This can take two main forms:
a) performing transactions or issuing orders to trade:
- that give, or are likely to give, false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for or price of
financial instruments, or
- that secure, by the action of one or more persons acting in concert, the price of one or more financial
instruments at an abnormal or artificial level,
b) performing transactions or issuing orders to trade that employ fictitious devices or any other form of
deception or contrivance;
3.Spreading false information
This is disseminating information, whether through the media (including the Internet) or by any other
means, which gives (or is likely to give) false or misleading signals as to financial instruments,
including spreading rumours or disseminating false or misleading information, when the person who
made the dissemination knew, or ought to have known, that the information was false or misleading.
Be that as it may, a vital preliminary is to raise awareness among all stakeholders of the risks of
corruption linked to sports betting. For example many sportspeople are unaware of the issue of conflict
of interest and bet on sport without seeing any harm in the practice. European association EU
Athletes 99 runs a prevention programme for players - part of which consists of raising awareness
directly among players in the changing rooms - and has ascertained that more than half the footballers
in England are not at all aware of the obligations relating to their status 100 . About 20% of professional
basketball players in France have admitted, in changing room surveys, that they have bet already on
their own championship 101 . These two examples illustrate the pressing need to educate participants in
sport.
Factoring in risk by raising awareness among stakeholders
Significant attention must be paid to athletes. Apart from the risk of insider information, there is a
serious risk of athletes finding themselves caught in a web and criminal spiral, but at grassroots level
99 See Code of Conduct on Sports Betting for Athletes, EU
Athletes (http://www.euathletes.info/uploads/media/Sports_Betting_-_Code_of_Conduct_for_AthletesEN.pdf)
100 Interview with Simon Taylor, Professional Players Federation, United Kingdom, 14 April 2011
101 Interview with Jeff Reymond, Union Nationale de Footballeurs Professionnels, France, 30 March2011
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