IOC Step Up Fight Against Illegal and Irregular Betting

A Working Group established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on March 1 at the first meeting on irregular and illegal sports betting agreed to set up three sub-groups to flesh out objectives in the fight against irregular and illegal betting in sport yesterday, health June 15.

It was also agreed that more needed to be done to strengthen the cooperation between sports, governments and betting operators to fight irregular and illegal betting, leading groups of experts to be formed to determine the following three objectives for the new body:

· Education: to evaluate existing programmes and determine joint programmes to be implemented, and study a basis for a code of conduct;

· Monitoring, intelligence and analysis: to evaluate ways to improve consistency in monitoring, intelligence exchange, and analysis;

· Legislation and regulations: to study the possibilities of creating common principles and strengthening judicial and police cooperation;

The meeting in Lausanne, Swtizerland, was chaired by IOC President Jacques Rogge, and was attended by government ministers from several countries as well as representatives from Interpol, the United Nations, National Olympic Committees, International Federations and athletes.

Rogge stated: “We foresee increased cooperation in the monitoring and coordination of the fight against illegal and irregular betting in sport. Today saw our first proactive steps toward that goal and an increased level of commitment in our joint fight against this threat to sport.”

The deadline for establishing the sub-groups has been set for the end of July. The sub-groups are scheduled to hold their first meetings between September and November, with their reports to the Working Group being presented before the end of 2011.