ESSA and IOC to safeguard the integrity of the Winter Games

Brussels, 6 February: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and ESSA (Sports Betting Integrity) signed an agreement with the objective to detect and prevent any risk of manipulation of competition at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. ESSA, an international betting integrity body, already contributes already to the IOC’s Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS) and will reinforce the intelligence work of the IOC during the upcoming Games. In particular, it will make available one of its full-time monitoring operators in order to ensure that all betting patterns in relation to the Olympic events are carefully monitored to detect and prevent any potential risks.

Friedrich Martens, Head of the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM PMC) said on the occasion of the agreement: “Preserving the integrity of the Games is of paramount importance for the International Olympic Committee. In order to achieve this we need the experience, expertise and intelligence from all operators and stakeholders involved. ESSA, with which we have enjoyed a fruitful cooperation for years, will surely have a significant contribution thanks to its network and know-how”.

Khalid Ali, Secretary General of ESSA added: “This collaboration between ESSA and the IOC demonstrates the depth of trust and respect that has been built between us over a number of years. It also highlights our shared ambition to drive corruption out of sport and regulated betting markets.  The integrity of the Games will undoubtedly be enhanced as a result of this partnership.”

About ESSA:

ESSA represents many of the world’s biggest regulated sports betting operators, serving over 40 million consumers in the EU alone. Concerned regulated bookmakers created ESSA in 2005 to monitor betting markets and alert sporting bodies and national regulators to suspicious betting patterns. The goal was, and is, to protect consumers from potential fraud caused by manipulating sporting events. ESSA helps to combat this with evidence-based intelligence it provides to sporting bodies and regulators.

Every year, our members invest over €50m in compliance and internal security systems in order to help combat fraud. They also give back to sport and society by spending €400m on sponsorship around the world – €250m of that in Europe alone. This increases substantially when advertising and photo and video-streaming rights are taken into consideration. ESSA and its members also co-fund an education programme on gambling with EU Athletes that reaches out to 15,000 athletes/players across at least ten different sports in 13 EU countries.

ESSA continues to play a key role as the regulated betting sector’s representative body at national and international match-fixing policy forums and holds positions on working groups at the European Commission, Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The organisation is continually reassessing and improving its alert and reporting systems and has established information sharing arrangements with a range of sports bodies and regulatory authorities.

ESSA members include: 888sport, ABB, Bet-at-Home, Betclic, Betdaq, Betsson, BetStars, BetVictor, Betway, bet365, bwin, Cashpoint, Expekt, Fonbet, Gamesys, Interwetten, Ladbrokes Coral, Paddy Power Betfair, Sky Bet, Sportingbet, Sporting Index, Sportium, Stanleybet, Stoiximan, Unibet and William Hill. For more information see https://www.eu-ssa.org/ or visit us on twitter: @ESSA_Betting

About the IOC:

 The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of 3.4 million US dollars goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, reiterates the IOC’s commitment and drive to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport. The IOC’s initiatives for the prevention of competition manipulation are based on the 3-Pillar Strategy, as used by the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions, which covers the fields of (1) legislation and regulations; (2) education and capacity-building; and (3) intelligence and investigation. Concrete tools developed or co-developed by the IOC include the Olympic Movement (OM) Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions; the IOC-UNODC Model Criminal Law Provisions for the Prosecution of Competition Manipulation; the IOC Integrity e-learning; the IOC-INTERPOL capacity-building programme; the Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS); and the IOC Integrity and Compliance Hotline. Learn more here.

Contacts IOC: Friedrich Martens, Head of OM Unit PMC / Ethics and Compliance Office / IOC, Lausanne, Switzerland [email protected]