By Mark Baber
May 30 – The European Sports Security Association (ESSA), the betting industry’s ‘integrity’ body, published its annual integrity report Tuesday, claiming the evidence shows the battle against match-fixers from defrauding Europe’s licenced bookmakers is being won, The organisation argues the greatest threats to sporting integrity lie in poor governance and unregulated bookmakers outside Europe.
ESSA’s figures for 2012, based on data from the Association members – including Bet-at-home, Bet365, Betclic, bwin.party, Digibet, Expekt, Goldbet, Interwetten, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Sportingbet, Stan James, Stanleybet, Unibet and William Hill – show 109 alerts of which, after detailed examination of the evidence, only six were found to be of sufficient concern to be referred to the relevant sporting and regulatory authorities. The number is down from eight last year.
Khalid Ali, ESSA Secretary General, said “the licensed betting industry is at the forefront in combatting betting related match-fixing and today’s figures demonstrate that regulated online betting has actually created increased security. The ability of ESSA members to be able to identify consumers and trace transactions has added new layers of protection against fraud.”
He added: “Evidence from a variety of independent sources demonstrates that it is criminal organisations using unregulated bookmakers outside of Europe and poor sports governance that actually present the greatest threats to sport. It is increasingly clear that accusations against regulated betting operators are unfounded and are a result of commercial differences rather than integrity issues.”
The ESSA argues tackling poor sports governance is central to addressing match-fixing including dealing with the issue, highlighted by FIFPro, of a lack of salary payments to players in Eastern Europe.
According to Ali: “Corrupters will continue to prey on the vulnerabilities of players until key sports governance issues, such as a lack of salary payments, are properly addressed. Greater focus on cross-sector cooperation, the effectiveness of which was clearly evident during the London 2012 Olympic Games, strengthening education programmes, which the betting sector has pioneered with EU Athletes, and addressing poor sports governance such as player salary issues should be the priorities.”
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