The Football Association (FA), the sport’s governing body in England, has launched its first-ever Sports Betting Integrity Forum as part of an effort to clamp down on match-fixing and corruption in British sport.
The government-backed initiative will bring together representatives from sports governing bodies, betting operators, sport and betting trade associations, law enforcement and gambling regulation.
It will also form part the UK’s Action Plan to address issues such as match-fixing and other threats to sports integrity.
In addition to UK bodies from sports such as football, cricket, rugby league and rugby union, the Forum will feature betting operators including Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral as well as the Gambling Commission UK regulatory body.
The Association British Bookmakers, the Remote Gambling Association and the Professional Players Federation have also signed up to the forum.
The first edition of the Forum, which took place on Monday, focused on how British sport can further enhance and develop existing comprehensive measures for preventing both match-fixing and corruption across various sports in the UK.
Co-chaired by Darren Bailey, FA director of football governance and regulation, the edition set out the Forum’s role in addressing the risk from match-fixing to the integrity of sport and sports betting and protecting Britain’s reputation for being a safe place to enjoy both.
“British sport and its partner organisations take the matter of integrity with the utmost seriousness,” Bailey said.
“The establishment of the Forum further demonstrates our long-term commitment to do all we can to protect the integrity of British sport, through working together, sharing best practice and learning from each other and other agencies.
“The Forum will help build on the current achievements at an organisational and national level, including amongst other things, developing further on the intelligence; strengthening the preventative measures within sports and betting organisations to raise awareness of the threats; and co-ordinating policy at a national and international level.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
