Cashpoint strengthens integrity commitment with ESSA membership

Brussels, 22 May 2018: Austrian-based international retail and online betting operator Cashpoint has joined international sports betting integrity association ESSA (Sports Betting Integrity). It maintains ESSA’s expansion across the sector and serves to further strengthen the coverage and impact of the association’s monitoring and alert system.

The Cashpoint sports betting and entertainment group was founded in 1996. Since 2005, it has been part of the German Gauselmann Group and has established itself as one of the leading providers in the sports betting industry. The company operates online and through more than 5,000 retail outlets, most notably in Germany and Austria, but is also active in Denmark, the UK and Belgium. Cashpoint is the principal shirt and stadium sponsor of Austrian Bundesliga football club Cashpoint SCR Altach.

Khalid Ali, Secretary General of ESSA, stated: “Cashpoint is a very welcome addition to ESSA and brings with it a sizeable retail and online market coverage to benefit our members’ alert platform. It is encouraging for me personally that the association continues to attract such responsible and reputable companies to its ranks and demonstrates the strong desire of those companies to work in partnership, both within and outside of our sector, to address betting related corruption in sport.”

Michael Wondra, CEO of Cashpoint, said: “There is no doubt that betting integrity remains high on the agenda of sports bodies, policymakers and regulatory authorities around the world. It has to be one of the core issues that all operators need to address both on a commercial and ethical level. The decision to join ESSA is an integral part of our company’s betting integrity policy and highlights our ongoing commitment to protecting consumers and sport from corruption.”

ESSA holds positions on high-level betting policy forums at the European Commission, Council of Europe and the IOC. It is driving a number of important initiatives aimed at addressing match-fixing and hosted an international betting integrity conference at Lords Cricket Ground (see here) at the end of last year, attended by over 150 senior officials from sports bodies, regulators and other key stakeholders. A copy of ESSA’s Q1 2018 integrity report can be accessed here, with previous reports.

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 ESSA’s website at https://www.eu-ssa.org/or visit us on twitter: @ESSA_Betting