International Betting Integrity Association

❓Can the availability of a sports betting product in a betting market have an impact on consumer protection, sports integrity and tax revenues? 💡 A recent study prepared by H2 Gambling Capital looks exactly at this issue, providing an in-depth analysis based on the most recent market data. It also evaluates 12 jurisdictions from across the globe which apply a wide variety of regulatory approaches. 👉 The purpose of the study is to provide policymakers with a data-driven evidence base upon which they can make more informed judgements about how best to respond to growing consumer demand for these betting products. 👀 Download the full study here: https://lnkd.in/e986vsTV

Integrity provisions in sports betting legislation are crucial for the fight against match-fixing and for the creation of a fair and sustainable sports betting market. This is why IBIA welcomes the recent Brazilian Ordinance 827/2024 which includes the requirement that licensed sports betting operators should join an independent integrity monitoring body. This is a best practice that should be replicated across those jurisdictions in the LatAm region, and elsewhere, which still need to address sports betting integrity or are in the process of regulating their sports betting market. Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA commented: “With legalisation comes renewed responsibility to protect the sports betting market, sports and consumers from match-fixing. Brazil has set a high bar on integrity, but there remains a lot of work to do in the wider LatAm region. The Ordinance’s stipulation that operators in Brazil must join an independent sports integrity monitoring body is helping to drive growth in IBIA’s membership and in our ability to monitor more betting transactions in Brazil’s regulated market. Our priorities are to further strengthen our monitoring and alert network and extend our information sharing agreements with partner organisations in Brazil and across the Latin American region. Our focus must be on creating a robust sports betting integrity ecosystem across the whole LatAm marketplace.”  Read the full PR here on the IBIA's call to adopt robust sports betting integrity provisions in the LatAm region 👇

The International Tennis Integrity Agency suspended for a period of six years a former tennis player from Bosnia and Herzegovina after admitting to 23 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), including contriving the outcome of matches, facilitating wagering, receiving money in return for not giving best efforts in matches, and failure to report corrupt approaches. IBIA, and its members, collaborated with the ITIA by reporting suspicious betting activity on matches relevant to the case 👇 https://lnkd.in/eHsUwD37 Full decision can be found here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e2gMHE2w

The IBIA’s education campaign in Canada is in full swing with additional integrity training sessions delivered to players at Atlético Ottawa and Halifax Wanderers FC last week. It’s great to see the teams and athletes taking time to prioritize sports integrity during their competitive season, when it matters most. This is a joint fight that starts with education in the locker rooms.    Collaboration is essential to the initative’s success. So we’re incredibly grateful for the productive partnerships with PFA Canada | AFP Canada, the Canadian Premier League, and to our members, bet365, Betway Group, and FanDuel, for helping to bring IBIA’s sports integrity education initiative to Canada.    A big thanks also goes to Jean-François Reymond, IBIA's Education Ambassador, who helped tailoring the education material and delivered the train the trainers sessions to Dan Kruk and his team from PFA Canada.    With IBIA's training model, which is based on building trust and peer-to-peer learning, more and more athletes understand how they can avoid and prevent sports integrity breaches, including by using the FIFPRO ‘Red Button’ app for anonymously reporting sports integrity concerns.    The IBIA model is relevant to all sports, so we’re also excited by the interest we’ve received from other Canadian sports governing bodies about the prospect of extending the initiative to their athletes.   For those that want to know more, follow our inspiring education ambassador Jean-François Reymond’s who writes regularly about IBIA’s approach to sports integrity training: https://lnkd.in/dCrCrY2r   You can also find more about IBIA training model here: https://lnkd.in/e-WJCpKY

Our Education Ambassador Jean-François Reymond shared some of his thoughts following the kick off of the in-person integrity training of CPL athletes last week, in the framework of the education campaign promoted by IBIA, bet365, Betway Group Group, FanDuel, in collaboration with PFA Canada | AFP Canada : 👉 Forge FC players showed a lot of interest in the education session with a lot of questions being asked: this is a clear sign of the need for sports integrity training in Canada. We are planning more team visits which will help to further protect players and educate them on the risks of match-fixing. 👉 according to our Education Ambassador, the face-to-face approach was proved invaluable once again: he could speak directly to a group of 25 professional footballers, hailing from countries all around the globe, sharing the key messages and the basics guidelines players need to know ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e-WJCpKY Check out Jean-François’s recap of his recent trip to Canada : https://lnkd.in/eB2d3H52

Our Education Ambassador Jean-François Reymond shared some of his thoughts following the kick off of the in-person integrity training of CPL athletes last week, in the framework of the education campaign promoted by IBIA, bet365, Betway Group Group, FanDuel, in collaboration with PFA Canada | AFP Canada : 👉 Forge FC players showed a lot of interest in the education session with a lot of questions being asked: this is a clear sign of the need for sports integrity training in Canada. We are planning more team visits which will help to further protect players and educate them on the risks of match-fixing. 👉 according to our Education Ambassador, the face-to-face approach was proved invaluable once again: he could speak directly to a group of 25 professional footballers, hailing from countries all around the globe, sharing the key messages and the basics guidelines players need to know ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e-WJCpKY Check out Jean-François’s recap of his recent trip to Canada : https://lnkd.in/eB2d3H52

💥Hello Betnation and welcome to IBIA! You join over 50 companies and 125 sports betting brands that feed into IBIA’s world leading betting integrity network. Khalid Ali , CEO of IBIA, said: “IBIA is delighted that Betnation has chosen IBIA as its preferred integrity monitoring partner. The move highlights Betnation's commitment to protecting the integrity of its betting products, consumers and related sporting events by utilizing the world’s leading operator-led monitoring and alert network. IBIA looks forward to working closely with Betnation and to integrating the operator within our global sports betting integrity system.” Betnation is a brand of Smart Gaming B.V. and has joined IBIA as part of the operator’s recent launch of its sportsbook in the Netherlands. With this addition IBIA now represents over 90% of the licensed sportsbooks currently in operation in the country. #SportsIntegrity #Betnation #IBIA #SportsBetting #SmartGaming #BettingIntegrity

My plane back to Europe 🇪🇺 allowed me to take some time to think about the panel discussion I was part of last Thursday at the Canadian Gaming Summit. These are my 4️⃣ takeaways : 1️⃣⁠ ⁠Regulators, sports, betting operators - everyone in the sports integrity ecosystem has a strong shared interest in preventing match fixing. Operators – who are the targets of fraudulent betting – play a vital role by monitoring and reporting suspicious betting patterns. 2️⃣⁠ ⁠Match-fixing requires the involvement of actors (either athletes or officials) which is why sports integrity education is key 🔑. In our experience, face-to-face education 🗣️ programmes are the best way to build the necessary trust and engagement. 3️⃣ ⁠Match-fixers should be very worried. Sport operators are constantly upgrading their internal control systems, including the introduction AI. This means their ability to detect and report suspicious activity, and support investigations, is constantly increasing. 4️⃣ ⁠The problem with match-fixing is the unregulated markets, particularly in Asia. There is a clear recognition that balanced and efficient regulation is the best way to attract responsible betting operators and channel consumers into the regulated markets. Ontario is a great example; with recent regulation increasing the channelling rate to 92%. For more on this, take a look at this recent International Betting Integrity Association study: https://ibia.bet/study/ A big thank you to our moderator Doug Hood from the Alcohol & Gaming Commission of Ontario, and my fellow panelists, Scott Vanderwel, PointsBet 🇨🇦, Owen Welsh, Scott Grant from Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport / Centre canadien pour l’éthique dans le sport, John Wellendorf, IC360 Advisory North America and Sebastian J. for a great discussion. Special thanks to Nick O'Malley for sharing a great Euro football lunch with me.

A full busy week for our Education Ambassador Jean-François Reymond who was in Ontario, Canada: ✅ Kicked off the face to face athletes education program developed in collaboration with PFA Canada | AFP Canada and supported by IBIA and its members bet365, Betway Group and FanDuel. He visited Forge FC and had an open and honest conversation directly with the players on the risks related to match-fixing and what tools are available for them to prevent this and how report if they are asked to fix a match. Check out here our Ambassador's insights on his experience: https://lnkd.in/dCrCrY2r ✅ He spoke at the Canadian Gaming Summit about the importance of education of athletes as a key pillar in the fight against match-fixing and the role regulated sports betting operators can play in mitigate this phenomenon. More info: IBIA’s Athletes Education Campaign in Canada: https://lnkd.in/ebuqz9TD Three rules every athlete should know about sports betting to protect themselves from betting related match-fixing: https://lnkd.in/egsV9ahE

⚽ With the imminent kick off the #Euro2024 we are gearing up to monitor the games throughout the tournament, working closely with UEFA, as part of our established relationship. We have been working hand in hand with UEFA over the past years to uphold sports integrity and the regulated betting industry is ready to do its fair share this year as well during such an important football event.