SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Addressing the Soccerex Asian Forum in Jordan on the issues of sports corruption and match fixing, Chris Eaton Executive Director of the International Centre for Sports Security (ICSS) urged attending delegates to push for all Asian nations to adopt a “transparent, legalised, regulated and supervised sport betting, so there will be far less money to fix football or any other sports matches.”
The former Head of Security for FIFA, Eaton stated that a change in direction regarding sports betting was needed by Asian nations in order to fight sports corruption and match fixing by criminal gangs.
Eaton would further state that betting fraud had impacted negatively China and India’s sports development, as audiences had become cynical of sports owing to match fixing scandals. Eaton pointed to the slow development of football in India and China, stating that the sport’s progress had been a victim of sports corruption issues.
Chinese football was still feeling the impact of corruption scandals which had rocked confidence in its professional league. Eaton commented “after the scandals in China attendances went down to 30% of the norm. China should be one of the powerhouses of world football but is not,”
India’s football development had become a victim of wider corruption seen in the country’s sports
“India should also be a powerhouse in world football but it is not, because of match-fixing in cricket for goodness sake.The spectators in India have now become very cynical about their sport because they’ve seen what has happened in their most popular sport and they apply it to other sports.”
