During the SBC Summit North America, on July 13, GLMS President Ludovico Calvi joined the session entitled Putting aside the differences – building a new integrity ecosystem.
Moderated by Becky Harris – Distinguished Fellow, Gaming & Leadership, UNLV – and comprising speakers Kyle Christensen, Chief Marketing Officer, PointsBet, US; Sabrina Perel, VP and Chief Compliance Officer, NFL and Khalid Ali, CEO, International Betting Integrity Association, the panel examined how rights holders, sport governing bodies, regulators, betting operators, and integrity bodies can bridge the gap in key areas, such as:
– Increasing access to and managing sports data
– Navigating the reputational challenge of sports betting
– The adoption of more advanced technologies to combat licensing obligations
– Processes such as operator due diligence, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering requirements.
GLMS activities including monitoring sports competitions, education and training all aim to uphold the integrity of sport. Calvi noted:
“Global multistakeholder cooperation involving diverse key stakeholders (regulators, sport organizations, law enforcement agencies) at domestic and global level becomes imperative to succeed in the fight against sport corruption”.
Maintaining integrity for sports and sports betting
The US Sports betting industry continues to grow and is projected to reach USD 37 b by 2025. Data is key to this industry and understanding its intrinsic value and partnerships. The panel offered insights into the impact of data sharing, access, ownership and privacy and how it impacts diverse stakeholders, such as players, sports betting operators and sports organizations.
Calvi underscored the data driven culture of the sports and sports betting world.
“Data is central and key to all stakeholders involved: public authorities, sports organizations, law enforcement agencies and the betting business, powering the connecting intelligence, and analytics used to guide key decisions.”
This is relevant to athletes, teams, betting operators, fans and importantly all parties involved in preventing sports competition manipulation.
Education is key
One topic of the panel covered the point that US colleges and universities are beginning to consider providing their athletes with gambling awareness and education programming, the moderator mentioned her concern and noted the law review article she wrote on the topic entitled: Reshaping College Athlete Sports Betting Education which provides the necessary framework for collegiate sports organizations to move forward with modernizing sports wagering education and awareness for collegiate athletes through (a) adopting best practices; (b) establishing reporting processes; and (c) creating a necessary system of education that provides additional measures of protection and awareness of the threats brought on by nefarious individuals.
To this point, Calvi highlighted the fact that consumer protection has become a must for a growing number of gaming regulators and public authorities, who are increasing the effectiveness of provisions in their regulatory frameworks. He stressed the fact that prevention and education are key to strengthening these efforts.
GLMS works with universities, sports organizations, law enforcement and other groups who help raise awareness among athletes about the issues surrounding match fixing. This year, it has participated in the Integrisport Next project events in Cyprus, Malta and Georgia.
