IOC receives sports betting partnership interest as UEFA lays out match-fixing stance

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) intelligence and investigations manager, Dieter Braekeveld, has revealed the organisation has received sponsorship proposals from sports betting operators.

Though the IOC has no official betting sponsorships in place, guidelines were introduced in June 2020 for sports organisations on sponsorship by sports betting firms.

As part of the guidelines, the IOC stated that “broadcast sponsorship billboards for betting companies must be in compliance” with two principles.

Those are for cooperating members of the IOC’s IBIS (Integrity Betting Intelligence System) and “activations must be limited to the name/brand display of the relevant company/product (but specifically not any betting opportunities or markets)”.

There are currently no plans in place for the Olympics to partner with a sports betting operator, something European football’s governing body UEFA has started to introduce in the past 12 months.

These include Betano being named the first-ever betting partner for the European Championships as well as the global sponsor of the Europa and Conference League and bet365 as the Champions League official sports betting partner.

Speaking during a World Regulatory Briefing panel on the second day of ICE Barcelona, Braekeveld said there may be a change with a new president in charge but in his opinion, a betting partner is unlikely any time soon.

He said: “We have presidential elections coming up. There will be a new president of the IOC in March. But personally, I don’t think [betting sponsorship] will happen in the near future.

“We do have specific guidelines with regards to sports betting sponsorships because each country has a National Olympic Committee and they are receiving increasing amounts of proposals for betting partners and betting sponsorships at the grassroots level.

“Many different sports betting companies see value in those partnerships and we are there to support the grassroots sports and grassroots development.”

However, he did add that the IOC encourages NOCs to consult with the international body and to sign up to its information sharing platform, IBIS, as a “strong signal towards the protection of sports integrity”.

“We also advise NOCs to check that the operator has the proper licensing, including in the area where the sponsorship agreement will be implemented.”

For UEFA, intelligence manager for the anti-match-fixing unit, Angela Celestino, said the decision to introduce gambling sponsorships was taken to work closely with operators and share information regarding match-fixing.

Celestino disclosed that the idea was raised four years ago as part of a “strategic shift” at the governing body to introduce sponsors to their flagship events.

She said: “It’s part and parcel of this idea that we’re really on the same team. Our interests are aligned, and we’re working towards that same goal of clean competition.

“A key piece of that was engaging with the licensed and well-regulated betting sector. We weren’t signing agreements with operators that weren’t fully dedicated towards integrity.

“For us, it was very important we had a single point of contact within the betting operator so that if we had any concerns, we could reach out to the operator. It was really important to have exchanges with the operator, running the full integrity lifecycle.”

Explaining what that cycle consists of, Celestino said the betting operator would collaborate with UEFA’s match-fixing prevention efforts and take part in UEFA workshops as “having the industry in the room is really important for us”.

On top of that, the integrity lifecycle involves UEFA engaging in dialogue with the industry over what trends it is seeing, trading volume and what is being staked during competitions.

That close relationship with operators also allows for UEFA to request account data on suspected individuals and when justified and warranted, opening investigations which could lead to disciplinary action surrounding match-fixing in football.

Celestino added: “Moving to requesting account level data in actual individuals, if it is warranted and justified, we have the appropriate data privacy protections in place to request that account level data so we can further an investigation.

“And then again, if warranted, [we] could potentially use that information in a sport disciplinary hearing setting.

“All of that bundled together, the really important piece is being able to have that open engagement on integrity.”

The post IOC receives sports betting partnership interest as UEFA lays out match-fixing stance first appeared on EGR Intel.

 Olympic intelligence manager Dieter Braekeveld says partnerships unlikely to happen in short term, as UEFA boss explains reason behind introduction of gambling sponsorships
The post IOC receives sports betting partnership interest as UEFA lays out match-fixing stance first appeared on EGR Intel.