Gambling Commission calls on the betting industry and sports bodies to work together to uphold integrity in sports betti
Press release
Date: 4
October 2007
The Gambling Commission today calls for increased co-operation
between licensed betting operators and sports governing bodies to
promote the integrity of British sports betting.
The Commission is working to uphold the integrity of sports
betting in Britain. From 1 September 2007 the Commission has had
the powers to act where there is a risk to their licensing
objectives which includes ensuring that betting is fair, open and
crime-free.
The Commission has consulted widely on possible further activity
and in a paper published today it concludes that more can be done
to facilitate cooperation and shared understanding between betting
operators and governing bodies.
Following this morning's publication the Gambling Commission's
Director of Intelligence Andrew Rennison is speaking to the British
Association for Sport and Law's 15th Annual Sports Law Conference
at Wembley Stadium on Thursday afternoon. Andrew Rennison said:
"The Commission wants to ensure that the sports governing bodies
and the betting industry share sufficient information to be able to
identify risks to the integrity of sports betting. To that
end the Commission encourages the relevant parties to share
knowledge and best practice. The Commission will keep a
watching brief on any issues that emerge in integrity in sports
betting.
"The Commission will continue to monitor the impact of the new
law through its compliance and intelligence gathering functions but
it is time for those involved to work together to maintain the
integrity of sports betting."
The Commission calls on the betting industry and sporting bodies
to:
- improve their understanding of how each other's industry
operates and to share information relevant to integrity in sports
betting;
- share knowledge and best practice on sports betting
integrity;
- continue to provide evidence of incidents to the Commission
that may impact on integrity in sports betting.
Ends.
Notes to editors
The Gambling Commission
The Gambling Commission regulates gambling in the public
interest. It does so by keeping crime out of gambling, by ensuring
that gambling is conducted fairly and openly, and by protecting
children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by
gambling.
The Gambling Commission
website contains further information about the Commission and
its activities.
Integrity in sports betting
The Commission's remit relates to betting on sports, rather than
all activities related to integrity in sports. The Commission
has already put in place measures to ensure betting operators share
information about suspect betting patterns with sports governing
bodies. If betting operators fail to do so, they put their
operating licences at risk.
In June 2007 the Commission published its Licence Conditions and
Codes of Practice for operators. They include a licence condition
which sets out the circumstances in which betting operators must
share information about bets with the Gambling Commission and
sports governing bodies. This licence condition was developed
following a separate consultation on integrity in sports betting
that began in March 2007.
This policy position paper on Integrity in Sports Betting
summarises the Commission's thinking following the consultation on
an issues paper published in May 2007. The issues paper was an
opinion gathering exercise designed to provide the Commission with
information on whether the inter-relationship between sport and
gambling might impact upon the licensing objectives.
All of the papers along with a document summarising the full
responses to the consultation can be viewed on the Gambling
Commission's website.
Further information
For further information please contact: John Travers or Mark
Lepkowski on 0121 230 6700, or email communications@gamblingcommission.gov.uk.
Out of hours: 07950 572145 or 07852 124624