Gambling Commission to change licence and code of practice to fight match-fixing

The Gambling Commission is changing its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice to protect the integrity of sport.

The Sports Betting Group, led by the Alliance, has been instrumental in bringing about these improvements through its lobbying during the passage of the recent Gambling and Advertising Bill.

The changes mean that sports bodies will have greater access to information about suspicious betting patterns and will provide a significant boost in their efforts to wipe out match-fixing and corrupt betting.

Specifically, the changes to Licence Condition 15.1 will result in changes in the following areas:

• Spread betting operators will now be required to share suspicious information with the Gambling Commission and sports bodies in the same way that fixed-odds operators already are.
• Any overseas operators taking bets in the UK will also be brought into the regulatory remit of the Gambling Commission and will be required to share information in the same way that UK based operator are.
• Licensed operators must provide information on any suspicious activity to the Gambling Commission and sports bodies relating to any UK sporting event, regardless of where in the world the information emanates from (e.g. unusual betting patterns in France relating to a sporting event taking place in the UK).

Whilst these are very positive developments, the SBG remains of the view that there is still much more to be done in the fight against match-fixing and corrupt-betting and has written to Helen Grant outlining its views on how the Government should proceed.

This includes introducing specific criminal legislation to tackle match-fixing, as well as resources being made available to protect sporting integrity in the same way that there already is for anti-doping.

For more information on the work of the SBG or sports betting matters please contact David Foster.

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