The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set up a special unit to help tackle match-fixing and illegal betting in future editions of the Olympic Games.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the IOC held a meeting with its stakeholders and representatives from the global governing bodies of football (Fifa) and athletics (IAAF) to discuss the proposal.
Athletes and officials are forbidden from betting on the Games and the IOC has been co-operating with legal betting agencies to monitor betting patterns or unusual wagers.
“It was agreed the IOC will set up a special unit to co-ordinate efforts [on match-fixing and illegal betting],” the IOC said.
“This unit will work on risk prevention and the dissemination of information and will support the harmonisation of rules of the Olympic and sports movements.
“These rules will be based on examples from some of the international federations already working on this issue, such as [Fifa] which has already applied severe sanctions.”
Although the Olympics have remained largely unaffected by match-fixing or illegal betting, a number of recent incidents have persuaded the IOC to take action.
At the London 2012 Summer Games, four women’s badminton doubles pairs from South Korea, China and Indonesia deliberately played to lose matches in order to get a more favourable draw. All the pairings were disqualified and banned.
In addition, Irish sailor Peter O’Leary was issued with a warning after betting on a direct competitor to win at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
