Europol pushes for cooperation on match-fixing

The EU law enforcement agency is calling for match-fixing to be treated as a serious criminal offence.

The Netherlands.- Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, is calling for more public-private cooperation to fight match-fixing.

Its new report, “The Involvement of Organised Crime Groups in Sports Corporation”, argues that there needs to be a change in the way match-fixing is addressed.

It says that match-fixing is often treated as a sports integrity issue when it should be treated as a serious criminal offence carried out by organised crime networks.

It says that organised crime groups are involved in sports corruption across jurisdictions, citing data from Sportradar finding that internationally criminal proceeds from betting-related match-fixing stood at around €120million a year.

The report concludes that better public-private cooperation is needed to “ensure a consistent multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary approach” in the tackling corruption.

Europol said: “This approach requires the necessary involvement of all relevant stakeholders including law enforcement, judicial authorities, sports bodies, regulatory authorities and other public authorities, betting operators, as well as private companies providing betting monitoring and integrity services, and the wider public.

“Its is paramount that EU Member States and involved third parties address and prioritise this challenging crime area more effectively as a way to tackle OCGs [organised crime groups] operating in the EU and beyond.”

Other measures called for in the report include the further development of protected reporting and whistleblowing systems.

The report finds that organised crime groups mainly target lower-level sports contests.

It found that football remained the most targeted sport, although warned that match-fixing in tennis had increased substantially in recent years from an estimated 11 cases of manipulation in 2016 to 236 in 2017 and 191 in 2018.

The report said OCGs were using betting-related match-fixing and online gambling to launder money, using false identities to create betting accounts and e-wallets to bet on fixed matches.

Spain last month launched a national plan to combat sports betting fraud.