Gambling Commission reports increase in esports integrity reports
Esports accounted for 20 per cent of betting integrity reports in the Gambling Commission’s April summary.
UK.- The British regulator, the Gambling Commission, has published its latest overview on betting integrity, reporting an increase in reports related to esports.
The regulator’s report for April shows esports accounting for 20 per cent of all reports, just behind tennis.
Football continued to generate the most betting integrity reports, accounting for 44 per cent of the total while tennis accounted for 21 per cent. Other sports accounted for 15 per cent.
In the Gambling Commission’s previous betting integrity snapshot, published in September 2019, 51 per cent of reports involved football, 30 per cent tennis, 5 per cent horseracing and 14 per cent other sports.
Of the reports included in April’s summary, 34 per cent were made by betting operators themselves. Some 20 per cent were made by sports governing bodies, 15 per cent by bet monitoring and data suppliers, and 10 per cent by other regulators and national platforms.
The remaining 21 per cent were reported via other means such as the Gambling Commission’s confidential reporting line, by law enforcement agencies, the public, or by non-Gambling Commission licensed operators.
The April snapshot comes after the Gambling Commission introduced an obligation for all gambling licensees to report betting integrity issues to its Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) in a standardised format.
The requirement was introduced in amendments to the regulator’s Licence Condition and Codes of Practice in October 2020.
Gambling Commission Sports and Sports Betting Integrity Action Plan
The Gambling Commission has also published its Sports and Sports Betting Integrity Action Plan for 2021. The regulator updates the plan every year, having first introduced it in 2015.
The Action Plan details the Sports Betting Integrity Forum (SBIF) objectives to protect Britain’s reputation for a safe sports betting market.
Priorities highlighted in the updated plan include adapting to the UK’s departure from the European Union.
The SBIF website has been redesigned in an attempt to make it easier to locate resources on betting integrity. It hosts a sports betting integrity training module, which was developed as an educational resource for the British betting industry.
The Gambling Commission has recently published the results of a series of surveys. One survey sought to measure the reach and impact of gambling advertising. It found that 34 per cent of gamblers reported having spent money on gambling in the past year as a result of advertising.
Last week, the regulator published the results of a survey that found that cashless payments made it easier for players to overspend on land-based gaming. It has proposed the development of an app to record cashless payments and allow operator intervention.
See also: Gambling Commission suspends PlayerFT licence over Gamstop failures
