POSTED: Friday September 30th 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sporting Organisations Cooperating Closely To Tackle Corruption

Sporting Organisations are cooperating closer than ever before in efforts to tackle corruption caused by illegal betting, it emerged at the 4th Sport & Gambling 2011, an annual conference organised by World Sports Law Report

Sporting Organisations Cooperating Closely To Tackle Corruption

Sporting Organisations are cooperating closer than ever before in efforts to tackle corruption caused by illegal betting, it emerged at the 4th Sport & Gambling 2011, an annual conference organised by World Sports Law Report and World Online Gambling Law Report on 29 September. Leading sports and gambling industry experts met at the Law Society in central London on 29 September to discuss the key legal and commercial challenges facing the sports and gambling industry.

The event, sponsored by leading law firm DLA Piper, kicked off with a speech by Nick Tofiluk, Director of Regulation at the UK Gambling Commission on policing against corruption in sport. Tofiluk warned the delegates that "the perception of corruption is as damaging as corruption itself" so much more needs to be done to encourage communication and cooperation between gambling operators and sports organisations, in the UK and worldwide. “We should not underestimate the opposition, there is no single opponent, especially with the development of internet betting” he said. “There needs to be effective public messaging and governance mechanisms to show something is indeed being done. The cooperation between sports organisations, gambling operators and police is not a done deal, but slowly beginning to work." When asked whether Tofiluk thinks a lot of the existing betting corruption still is not properly investigated, Tofiluk acknowledged that “resources are limited. Neither the police or we [the Gambling Commission] can act alone - there is only so much we can do”.

Sports organisations
Another speaker at the conference was Andrew Danson, representing the European Sponsorship Association, who spoke about the complex financial relationship between gambling operators and sports organisations, and detailed the regulation surrounding advertising bans in the EU He defended the position of sports organisations when asked why fast food and soft drink companies could sponsor sports events and gambling operators were effectively banned in several countries form doing so. “Sports organisations are independent. They have the right to decide who they accept as a sponsor, and who not.”

Betfair
Andy Cunningham, Head of Integrity at Betfair, the world’s largest gambling operator, spoke on the role businesses should play in detecting suspicious gambling patterns, using Betfair’s own system as an illustration of how to detect suspicious betting patterns. He stressed business should maintain a golden rule: “Any suspicions? Follow the money”.

Horseracing
Paul Scotney, of the British Horseracing Authority, highlighted the importance of recognising suspicious betting patterns and which role sports organisations play in this process. He pointed out that identifying suspicious situations can only be done if there is a conjunction of elements that indicate suspicious behaviour - if horses are suspiciously slow and calls are being made just before a match, “alarm bells should go off”.

Cricket and match fixing
Also at the event was Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the highly respected Chairman of the anti-corruption unit at the International Cricket Council, who used the recent scandals affecting the Pakistani cricket team to show the investigation and disciplinary processes used by the ICC. He revealed that international police organisation Interpol has been working with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Great Britain’s Gambling Commission.

Stephen Ketteley, a Partner at DLA Piper - the conference’s Gold Sponsor - pointed out that these issues are likely to get more complex due to a new approach to licensing gambling operators in Europe. He pointed out that operators will now need a licence for every country they wish to operate in, now that Great Britain and Europe have rejected the previous approach which only required an operator to be licensed in one regulated jurisdiction to offer services in all regulated jurisdictions.

A number of recent key regulatory developments were highlighted during the event. Indeed, the European Commission just completed a consultation on the future regulation of online gambling in Europe, just as the UK Gambling Commission launched a consultation on whether the it should share suspicious betting information with the International Olympic Committee and other international sporting federations. The UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport also announced that all gambling operators operating in the British market would require a licence from the UK Gambling Commission. All of these developments will affect sport’s future relationship with the gambling industry.

For more information on Sport & Gambling 2011, visit; http://www.cecileparkconferences.com/sport-gambling-2011 or contact David Longford on +44 (0) 20 7012 1384.

EDITOR NOTES
Details about the European Commission’s consultation on the future regulation of online gambling in Europe are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2011/online_gambling_en.htm
Details on the UK Gambling Commission’s consultation on sharing suspicious betting information with the International Olympic Committee and other international sporting federations are available here:  http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/8392.aspx
Details about the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s plans to require all operators supplying the British market to hold a UK Gambling Commission licence are available here:  http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/news_stories/8303.aspx

If you wish to contact the editor of World Sports Law Report, please email Andy Brown at andrew.brown@e-comlaw.com

If you wish to contact the editors of World Online Gambling Law Report, please email Amélie Labbé Thompson at amelie.labbethompson@e-comlaw.com or Michiel Willems at michiel.willems@e-comlaw.com

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Keywords · sport · and · gambling · 2011 · betting · sporting · tackle · corruption · world · sports · law · report · online · DLA · piper · commission · financial · andrew danson · nick tofiluk · andy cunningham · betfair · british · horse · racing · match · fixing · sir ronnie flanagan

Name: Stephanie Rietkerk
Organization: World Sports Law Report
Email:
Phone: +44 (0)20 7012 1384
URL: http://www.e-comlaw.com/

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