Malaysia becomes the epicenter of sports match-fixing

The country has overtaken Singapore as the principal destination of the illegal activity.

Malaysia.- According to the independent industry consultant and FIFA’s former security chief, Chris Eaton, Malaysia has overtaken the other Asian country as “the hub for sports match-fixing.” “Malaysia is the epicentre of trade for Southeast Asia,” he said.

Eaton commented on a forum on match-fixing organised by the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) in Singapore that although the latter managed to dismantle several football match-fixing syndicates, there’s a few that are still working along in close association with syndicates in Malaysia. The GLMS was born in 2015 with the intention of breaking up the organisations and monitoring match-fixing around the world by more than 25 official operators.

Director of the gaming consulting firm CK Consulting from Paris, Christian Kalb, said that illegal betting worldwide is believed to be worth around US$555 billion. Last month, the Malta Football Association (MFA) confirmed that they’re set to discuss this month a new law in order to create tighter controls and crack down match-fixing. Bjorn Vasallo, Malta Football Association’s general secretary, said that unregulated markets offer much higher returns as there are no tax, license fees or registration costs involved, and consequently such entities have strong links with criminal organisations.