Blog - Thoughts from the Sport & Gambling 2011 conference

Mikkel Larsen, Researcher - attended last week’s World Sports Law Report’s Sport and Gambling 2011 conference.

A speaker making a large impression on me at the Sport & Gambling 2011 conference was Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Unit in the ICC. Talking about the work he lead within the ICC he insisted that everybody buying a ticket to any game or tournament, not only should, but had the right to expect the sport to be “scrupulously fair” – that anything less would be a fraud on the paying public.

This is – in my opinion – exactly why any sport should take the issue of betting integrity extremely seriously and why suspicious betting is one of the major threats to sport in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Betting on sport has existed for centuries and scandals related to betting of sport have existed for just as long (The 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal being just one famous example). What is different is that betting, and more importantly, what you are able to bet on have changed dramatically. Unlike before, punters are now able to bet on single games, on aspect of the games (such as throw ins and corners) and crucially you can lay games and bet on a team to lose. All this has changed the focus from cheating to win to corrupting to lose.

Any fraud on the paying public or even just the perception of corruption will push not only the paying and viewing public away from the sport, but also lead to an erosion of the commercial value of a sport - destroying the entire lifeblood of any sport.

Everybody has an interest in protecting the integrity of sport; spectators, sporting bodies and also gambling companies. We must, therefore, also demand that companies offering bets on any sport in the UK live up to – as a minimum - the requirements of the Gambling Commission. Fighting suspicious betting demands massive resources (tennis, for example, spends 30% of its worldwide development budget on integrity and to run its integrity unit). And that is why it essential that all stakeholders work together to eradicate this scourge.