Patrick Coyne discusses global match-fixing and what the world is doing to ensure the future of sport.
British sport is in pretty good shape at the moment. Record medal-winning performances at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, more people participating in sport than ever before, and 75 governing bodies all signed up to practice good governance.
But there is a cloud on the horizon. A cloud that some in the sector still aren’t really prepared for.
Match-fixing.
In our view, match-fixing is the single biggest threat to the future of sport. And it’s not just our view.
Last week, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, identified the biggest threat to the future of the Olympics in an interview with the Times. Yes you’ve guessed it, match-fixing.
In the last month alone, globally, there have been cases of suspected match-fixing in tennis, football and basketball.
In the recent past sumo, handball, cricket, snooker and taekwondo have all also been affected.
And it’s a problem that’s getting worse, because criminals are constantly taking advantage of the new technology that becomes available to them.
Thankfully, across the world, sport is alive to the threat. After the Lou Vincent cricket scandal, politicians in New Zealand backed a bill which will make match-fixing a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.
In Victoria in Australia the Crimes Amendment (Integrity in Sports) Act 2013 also now means that anyone found guilty of match-fixing can face up to ten years in prison.
Over the past few years in the UK the Sports Betting Group, co-ordinated by the Sport and Recreation Alliance, has also been pushing the government for greater action on match-fixing.
Some headway has been made and we successfully persuaded the Government to be supportive of the Group’s aims through the amendments that were made to the Gambling Act earlier this year.
These changes now mean that sports bodies have greater access to information about suspicious betting patterns.
But much more needs to be done.
At the moment, prosecutions can be hard to come by because there is no specific offence of match-fixing.
The creation of such an offence would send a strong message from ministers that the UK is not going to tolerate corruption in sport.
We are also pushing for better, more regular, dialogue between sports and law enforcement agencies so that when an offence is suspected, the right people get the right information at the right time.
And that really is what it boils down to, because although match-fixing funds organised crime and makes bookies take a hit, ultimately the people that match-fixing hits is the fans.
The joy of sport is in its unpredictability, its element of chance; the fact that the result is not predetermined and that you are watching the exchange of people trying their upmost to win.
If you can’t believe the sport you’re watching, then why bother watch at all?
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