International betting integrity body ESSA reported 53 cases of suspicious betting to the relevant authorities during the second quarter (Q2) of 2017; this was made up of 31 suspicious betting cases in tennis, followed by football with 15 cases, basketball five and one case each for handball and volleyball.
ESSA Secretary General Khalid Ali commented on the update: “Betting integrity issues continue to be a key feature of stakeholder discussions at national and international levels. To that end, ESSA has been asked by the Council of Europe (CoE) to deliver a report on behalf of the private sports betting industry highlighting the challenges facing regulated operators to feed into the CoE’s ongoing efforts to ratify the match-fixing Convention and implement international standards. This important process will also feed into ESSA’s own integrity conference in London on 12 October.”
ESSA’s Q2 integrity report includes articles by Professor Nolte, from the Institute of Sports Law at the University of Cologne, commenting on his detailed report on the failings of the gambling regulation currently in place in Germany, and from Ian Smith, Integrity Commissioner for the eSports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), who explains how the ESIC is dealing with betting-related threats to the sector.
ESSA holds positions on match-fixing policy forums at the European Commission, Council of Europe and the IOC. It is driving a number of activities aimed at addressing match-fixing, including a player education programme with EU Athletes (see here) and an international anti match-fixing project with Transparency International, having recently finished an 18-month project with the Council of Europe.
A copy of ESSA’s Q2 2017 integrity report can be accessed here and previous reports here.
Source: SBC News
