The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), the integrity monitoring body previously known as ESSA, has entered into a betting integrity cooperation agreement with the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishes a formal arrangement between the IBIA and the MGA’s Sports Integrity Unit, which launched in August to increase focus and resources dedicated to preventing the manipulation of sporting events.
The MoU is the first agreement between the Sports Integrity Unit and a betting monitoring system, with the two organisations to focus on protecting consumers, sports and betting markets from betting-related corruption.
“The MGA has made the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions a core part of its licensing and regulatory policy,” MGA sports integrity officer Antonio Zerafa said. “Working in partnership with other stakeholders, notably betting operators, is critical to the success of that approach and the MoU with IBIA is therefore of particular importance.
“IBIA and its members bring a wealth of market and consumer data that will undoubtedly serve to significantly strengthen the information and intelligence gathering ability of the Unit.”
IBIA chief executive Khalid Ali added: “The creation of the Sports Integrity Unit and its focus on tackling match-fixing is a very welcome move, which is why I am delighted to have reached this agreement with the MGA that will allow us to work collaboratively on integrity.
“For its part, IBIA will utilise its unique global betting monitoring system, which includes many of the largest MGA licensed operators, to provide information on suspicious betting to the Unit with the aim of preventing sports betting related corruption.”
Upon establishing the Unit earlier this year, the MGA said that the new Unit will gather intelligence and information relating to suspicious betting and serve as a liaison with both national and foreign regulatory authorities, law enforcement agencies, betting monitoring systems, sporting bodies and gaming operators to investigate activity.
The Unit will also work with other MGA divisions to implement policy initiatives such as signing cooperation agreements with other entities focused on tackling corruption in sport.
