RISKS TO THE INTEGRITY OF SPORT FROM BETTING CORRUPTION

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RISKS TO THE INTEGRITY OF SPORT FROM
BETTINGCORRUPTION

• RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING DAY, FEBRUARY, 2009

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• Introduction
• Concern over corruption is increasing amongst
  sports governing bodies.
• By borrowing from a model for the economics of
  crime, thought can be focussed on why concern is
  growing and what types of situation pose most
  risk.
• In the case of sport the individual athlete or
  official is thought of as comparing the costs and
  benefits of choosing to accept a bribe.
• The benefit relates to the money on offer from a
  betting syndicate while the costs include
  potential loss of earnings from suspension if
  found out, loss of sporting glory through
  underperformance and moral unease.
• As the betting environment changes, so will the
  expected benefit and costs and therefore the
  willingness of sportsmen to accept bribes will go
  up or down.

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• Changes in the betting environment
• Increased liquidity
• Money can be pumped into the market without
  detection.
• Increased competition
• Bettors now have access to bookmaker websites
  located around the world and bookmakers are
  forced to offer better deals.
• Modes of betting
• Betting exchanges give the opportunity to lay as
  well as back.
• Rise of in-play betting/rise of proposition bets
• Both pose new risks to sport because bets can be
  won without having to lose the match. For
  example, in tennis if you know that the favourite
  will lose the first set, you can bet against
  (lay) him before the match and back him after the
  first set and lock into a guaranteed profit
  irrespective of final result.

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• Predictions from the model- risky situations
• High liquidity relative to pay levels
• Subject of bet easy to fix by one person
• Subject of bet does not involve a different final
  outcome to the event (e.g. losing instead of
  winning)
• Situations where below-par performances are not
  suspicious in themselves

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• Policy response to corruption
• Governments- complete prohibition?
• Unlikely to succeed as bettors can seek out
  illegal markets.
• Regulators- prohibit some types of bet and
  betting?
• Difficult to restrict domestic access to
  international markets.
• Manipulation of European sporting events may
  originate outside the jurisdiction and betting
  markets elsewhere may be used.
• Given these obstacles faced by national gaming
  regulators, it is likely the burden of policy to
  control corruption will fall on sport itself.