Sports are popular and sports betting has increased significantly in recent years, as more jurisdictions legalize online sports betting around the world, more sports can be bet on, and diverse sports betting offerings continue to develop . However, legal operators have to contend with the boom in global illegal operators.
The Executive Director of the WLA (World Lottery Association), Luca Esposito Poleo (in the photo), presented the topic “Manipulations of sports competitions: exploring the landscape and the illegal betting market” during the ACT – Addressing Competition Manipulation Together – Macolin community conference, held in Rabat, Morocco.
He highlighted the important work of United Lotteries for Integrity in Sports_ULIS, which works to help lotteries protect the integrity of sport and plays a key role in the joint effort to combat illegal betting and match fixing.
Working with diverse stakeholders from across the global lottery community and the wider community, ULIS provides important services including:
- identify and monitor suspicious betting patterns for the world's most popular sporting competitions and provide in-depth analysis of global betting markets;
- collaborate with sports organizations, federations, law enforcement agencies and contribute to the development of policies and standards;
- undertaking awareness-raising and capacity-building activities as part of its education and training activities.
The rapid global growth of match fixing and sports corruption, as well as illegal sports betting operations, which are not regulated or safe for players, significantly damages the reputation of legal lottery and sports betting operators.
The WLA Committee on Illegal Lotteries and Betting is taking the lead in facilitating the creation of a robust and scalable model to estimate the size of the illegal market, for most WLA jurisdictions.
A WLA/ULIS workshop is planned for January 2024, with key stakeholders joining, including the American Gaming Association, Asian Racing Federation, H2 Gambling Capital, Hong Kong Jockey Club, INTERPOL, Singapore Pools, UNODC and Yield Sec.
The University of Lausanne – UNIL is preparing a research paper reporting current best practices for estimating the size of the illegal gambling market and the objective of the workshop is to be able to take the first steps towards producing a robust model and scalable for estimating the size of the illegal gambling market.
This event will promote partnerships and information sharing and strengthen the collective response to combat illegal betting markets and improve the integrity of sport.
