London South East – Brussels (Alliance News) – A European-led initiative to tackle illegal sports betting is nearing completion, the organization behind it said on Thursday, while a sports fraud watchdog warned of the growing dimensions of match-fixing.
Football match-fixing has hit the headlines in recent months, with Singaporean authorities arresting 14 people suspected of global involvement in the practice in September. In February, football’s world governing body FIFA extended sanctions on 58 people in China.
The convention, being drafted by the Council of Europe, should make it easier to prosecute match-fixing offenders and will promote cooperation and the exchange of information, its representative Torbjorn Froysnes told EU lawmakers.
More than 50 matches had “certainly” been fixed globally in the last four months, while another 150 games were “suspect,” the Federbet organization of operators and consumers fighting sports fraud told the lawmakers late on Wednesday.
Sports betting generates an annual turnover of up to 750 billion euros, according to Froysnes, with illegal betting estimated to represent about a third of that figure.
“Sports play such a major part in the life of millions of people,” Froysnes said, according to a transcript of his speech. “Losing faith in the integrity of sport would be disastrous, and destroy its role model functions.”
The 47-member Council of Europe – which is not a EU institution – is also cooperating with Australia, Canada, Belarus, Israel, Japan, Morocco and New Zealand on the initiative.
The proposal could be ready to sign by September 2014, according to Council of Europe spokesman Stan Frossard. The organization has spent four years working to fight the manipulation of sports competitions.
But Froysnes warned that some countries had to tighten up their laws with regard to match-fixing and ensure that national oversight bodies were in place to fight illegal betting.
“In order to make the involvement of law enforcement agencies possible, the criminalization of some actions connected with match-fixing offences is essential,” he said.
FULL STORY
