September 17 – The vast majority of the €1 billion gambled globally on every English Premier League game constitutes illegal betting, according to one of the world’s leading sports anti-corruption experts.
Chris Eaton (pictued left), executive director of the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security, told AFP that up to 80% of the amount placed on each game is suspect though there is no suggestion that any bets affected the outcome of matches.
Eaton, a former FIFA head of security, was speaking in Doha on the sidelines of a joint UNESCO-ICSS meeting to follow up on measures designed to combat match-fixing adopted by 121 countries in 2013 at the so-called Declaration of Berlin attended by sports ministers.
Some 60 experts from around the world are attending the two-day event in Qatar, examining progress made in combating match-fixing and sports manipulation.
“Sport will not survive 10 more years of this,” Eaton warned. “If governments don’t intervene in a collective, global and universal way on the issue of betting fraud-based match-fixing, then sport will continue to suffer significant credibility problems.”
“Governments are not reacting. Governments are still looking for sport to cure its own problem or some miraculous silver bullet.”
The Australian estimated that the illegal sports gambling market – with its hub in south-east Asia – was now worth around $1.5 trillion annually (€1.3 trillion).
The Doha session is the latest ICSS initiative in its drive to tackle manipulation of sport.
Speaking at the opening session, Ângela Melo (pictured centre), Director, Division for Youth Ethics and Sport, Sector for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO called for “concrete actions that could be implemented in the short and medium term to effectively fight against manipulation of sports competitions.”
ICSS President Mohammed Hanzab (pictured right) added: “The Sport Movement alone cannot successfully prevent and fight the manipulation of sport competitions, particularly when corruption and transnational organised crime are involved.”
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