Following the guilty verdicts in the corruption trial of the Pakistani cricketers yesterday (1 November 2011), we thought it would be timely to share what the Sport and Recreation Alliance has been doing to tackle the spectre of corrupt betting in the UK. In 2008, the sports betting industry was worth £38bn and continues to grow.
A Sports Betting Group has been established. This was one of the recommendations of the government-commissioned report into sports betting integrity by Rick Parry. Its remit is to co-ordinate sport’s anti-corruption efforts.
The Sport and Recreation Alliance provides support to the group and it is chaired by the Alliance’s chief executive, Tim Lamb.
The report also recommended the creation of a sports betting intelligence unit within the Gambling Commission.
The Sports Betting Group has:
In addition the Sport and Recreation Alliance has been active lobbying ministers to strengthen the regulatory environment around sports betting. The most recent success was the decision by minister John Penrose to require off-shore betting companies who operate in the UK to be fully licensed. This will ensure that off-shore betting companies (the vast majority) will be subject to the same high standards required of those operating in the UK – including licensing requirement 15.1 – which ensures that companies share any information about suspicious betting patterns with the Gambling Commission and with national governing bodies.
We are now focusing on resolving other issues for sport including how governing bodies can help determine what types of betting can be made on their sport.
We are also working at EU-level. We have had meetings with the EU Commission and, more recently, dialogue with the Polish presidency to examine how match-fixing can be addressed across the EU.
Today, the Sport and Recreation Alliance is publishing an updated version of the UK Concussion Guidelines for Non-Elite (Grassroots) Sport.
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