Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport
- European Lottery Monitoring System 128
The European lotteries were the first to initiate this coordinated type of approach. Their association
goes back to 1999, when it was named Match Info . It initially focused on sharing knowledge in their
area of activity. The ELMS system was conceived in 2005 and has been fully operational since 2009.
The monitoring team consists of technicians and analysts based in Copenhagen, within the Danish
lottery organisation. Its members monitor various indicators in real time: the volumes generated by
matches on Betfair and changes in odds both with the leading European operators and the
heavyweights of the Asian market. The association centres its action on football, and monitored about
5,000 matches between January and October 2011. 93 alerts were issued. ELMS is now considering
extending its skills, particularly to tennis and basketball.
Members use an official Internet site to which they have secure access through a password. The
Internet site contains details of all sporting events for which alerts have been issued, graded according
to a five-level scale of risk. Email alerts are also generated by the team and sent automatically to
dedicated departments in every member lottery (for example “Controle du jeu for La Francaise des
Jeux). These departments are then required to indicate whether they too have noted anomalies likely to
increase the level of doubt, particularly in relation to volumes of bets placed or abnormal or sudden
variations in odds. The European Lottery Association (EL) is keen to extend this system - with the
help of the World Lottery Association (WLA) - to the Asian lotteries (for example the Hong Kong
Jockey Club) and other major players on other continents.
Lotteries are not currently the dominant force in sports betting in Europe. Their role as precursors and
their shared history with the public authorities nevertheless confer particular legitimacy on them,
particularly with regard to extending monitoring to other regions of the world. The Internet platform is
a particularly relevant resource, as it provides members with precise aggregated data on a daily basis.
At their Annual General Meeting in June 2011, the European lotteries registered their commitment to
preserving public order and the integrity of sport (Helsinki Declaration). In this declaration, they
indicate more specifically their motivation to combat money-laundering, which is considered as the
primary risk factor of corruption linked to sports betting.
- European Sports Security Association 129
ESSA is an association of private operators whose 17 members lead the market in Europe. Established
in 2005 and consisting originally of 6 members, ESSA is based in Brussels and its only remit is
preserving the integrity of sport. Operator Bwin is one of its largest members, and is essentially the
member on which ESSA s early warning system depends - its advanced system based in Gibraltar has
a five-member security team led by a head bookmaker, whose task is to study suspect movements
submitted by ESSA members. The association also has a bookmaker based at Ladbrokes in London. It
is based on sharing information and communicating volumes, but does not go as far as exchanging
data on gamblers accounts in the event of an alert. In 2010, ESSA issued 58 alerts which were the
subject of in-depth enquiries, four of which were considered highly suspicious.
128 Interview on 7 June 2011, https://www.european-lotteries.org/home.php
129 Interview on 8 March 2011, http://www.eu-ssa.org/
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