SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Professor Jack Anderson of Queen’s University Belfast stated that match fixing had become the number one threat to sports integrity, surpassing doping.
Speaking at the International Sports Law Conference in Adelaide, Anderson urged for a review of current processes and strategies in order to tackle match fixing syndicates in international sports.
Anderson further stated that sports governing bodies remained unware of how criminal gangs operated and influenced sporting outcomes. Anderson highlighted the reach and impact of gangs within developing societies and their effect on young athletes development and progress within sports.
“They will go as far as to give a young person some money when they’re developing as a player, give them a car when they’re 18 or 19, give them an apartment in their mid-20s, and thereafter ask them to fix the game”.
Anderson urged governing bodies to widen their policy and thought in order to tackle these circumstances, which were at the heart of match fixing. The law professor pinpointed cricket as sport that had failed to tackle the issue of corruption/match fixing player development by criminal gangs.
With regards to online sports betting, Anderson stated that licensed betting operators and governing bodies, needed to prioritise the implementation of a worldwide match fixing and sports corruption framework. Anderson further stated that the fight against match fixing had been stalled by diverse set of national/regional laws regarding online betting.
“If you see Australia itself, the gambling laws and criminal laws between different states and territories [are] hugely different.
“Replicate that worldwide, where you go from jurisdictions that liberally regulate to jurisdictions that prohibit and try and get a consensus on that and it will be very, very difficult.”
