International sport is tightening the focus of its efforts to fight betting-linked corruption by setting up three sub-groups of experts to focus on education, monitoring and legislation surrounding the problem.
The British government is keeping a close eye on the sports integrity area in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games starting in July of next year.
For all the talk about the threat of match-fixing to sport, questionable betting activity continues to be extremely rare as far as licensed online operators can see, according to the main European organisation keeping an eye on possible corruption.
Swedish lobbyists have added a twist to the current consultation process on the European Commission’s Green Paper on remote gambling by linking the future of the industry to the commission’s own long-term digital ambitions, claiming online betting contributes to Europe’s digital competitiveness.
The online regime in France, which introduced the notion of a sports betting right, has not produced a windfall of revenue for sport since it went into effect in June, and has brought with it onerous new responsibilities.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday opened the door to unprecedented collaboration with the legal betting industry as it met to develop a strategy for the future of sports betting which would centre around the creation of a new betting watchdog.
Bookmakers in the UK expect to take as much as £25m in betting on the upcoming general election – more than double the volume bet the last time around in 2005.
With the introduction of a sports betting right pending in France, leading rights owners are pushing for the adoption of similar regimes across Europe and are lobbying national ministers of sport to that end.
