Over 70 participants from 20+ countries gather to discuss key topics, share best practices
One of the most anticipated sports integrity gatherings of the year was successfully held last week at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Jointly organised by United Lotteries for Integrity in Sports (ULIS), the World Lottery Association (WLA), and The European Lotteries (EL), the “Anticipate, Fight, Forward Looking” seminar brought together over 70 representatives from the world’s leading lotteries, sports betting operators and global sports organisations.
Over two days from 25-26 June, participants heard from leading experts on the main topics shaping the global sports betting industry today: integrity, fighting illegal practices, and next-level risk management.
Left to right: Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, Piet Van Baeveghem, Luca Esposito
On Day 1, welcome speeches were delivered by Friedrich Martens, Head of OM Unit PMC at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and ULIS President Jean-Luc Moner-Banet. These were followed by opening addresses from EL General Secretary Piet Van Baeveghem and WLA Executive Director Luca Esposito, who said:“Our industry gave back USD110 billion to good causes last year. Our industry is unique because we can do this in a reasonable and responsible way. Trust gives us this opportunity to fight for our industry’s values, but collaboration is key.”
The first panel discussion of the seminar was dedicated to sports integrity and moderated by ULIS Projects Manager Cristina Swan. Titled “Sharing Responsibilities for Maintaining Sports Integrity,” the conversation highlighted how responsibilities are connected and shared among key stakeholders to form a united front to maintain sports integrity.
The panel was designed as a play in five acts. The lottery audience was asked to participate in the journey by giving their opinions via an interactive tool. Each act was dedicated to a single topic – prevention, detection, reporting, investigation, and regulation – and was assigned to one of the international partnering organizations:
- Prevention – Dieter Braekeveld, IOC
- Detection – Angela Celestino, UEFA Intelligence Manager
- Reporting – Liam Rich, FIFA Senior Integrity Manager
- Investigations – Richard Evina Engolo, Interpol Criminal Intelligence Officer
- Regulation – Nicolas Sayde, Council of Europe Coordinator
Dieter Braekeveld from the IOC’s Olympic Movement Unity on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions stressed that “integrity prevention is strongest when education and intelligence work hand in hand: reaching athletes and their entourage with the right tools, messages and trusted voices, while using insights and intelligence from partners such as ULIS to better understand and mitigate risk.”
FIFA Senior Integrity Manager Liam Rich talked about the how the FIFA reporting process works and how lotteries can play an important role in encouraging players to report. “Players have access to a growing number of trusted and secure channels to report match manipulation concerns, and national lotteries, as highly visible, public-facing entities with an interest in supporting sports integrity, are well-placed to be part of that reporting landscape.” Participants agreed that manipulation cases can reach their full investigative potential when reporting from players is combined with data from betting monitoring.
Left to right: Nicolas Sayde, Richard Engolo, Cristina Swan, Dieter Braekeveld, Liam Rich, Angela Celestino
Interactive discussions on integrity, combating illegal practices, and advancing risk management continued throughout the day. They included talks on security from Fabien Marechal, Head of Corporate Cybersecurity at FDJ UNITED and Vice Chair of the WLA Security and Risk Management Committee; and Jeremy Couture, Head of Lottery Cybersecurity at FDJ United. On the topic of prediction markets, Cristian Kalb explored this new trend which he described as “a new name for an old product,” essentially a betting exchange operating under a different legal framework.
On Day 2, discussions centred on how to identify emerging risks and stay ahead in an increasingly complex environment.
Ali Kadiri, Chief of Staff to the CEO, La Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports (MDJS), presented MDJS actions on the fight against illegal betting in Morocco and how illegal betting reshapes global geopolitics.
This was followed by a critical response from the lottery industry on the largely unregulated expansion of prediction markets. WLA Executive Director Esposito quoted his organisation’s position paper on the topic that calls for immediate alignment between gaming and financial market regulators to close regulatory gaps and ensure prediction markets are subject to the same licensing, integrity, and consumer protection standards as betting.
Peter Szyszko, CEO and Founder of White Bullet, gave key insights from a pilot project with the European Lotteries that aims to strengthen monitoring, enforcement cooperation and the sharing of best practices across Europe.
ULIS Operations Manager Daniel Chan gave a live demonstration on how ULIS uses predictive AI technology in our monitoring system, the One Stop Integrity Platform (OSIP), to detect suspicious movements and prevent competition manipulation. He explained how the predictive model used in the platform recognises patterns, generates alerts, and predicts risks before they happen.
Daniel Chan
The Seminar ended with a strategic round table between the leaders of the three host organisations who recapped the challenges facing lotteries that were discussed over the two previous days.
EL Secretary General Piet Van Baeveghem underlined that Europe has a clear vision for addressing illegal gambling: “Fighting illegal gambling requires legal clarity, coordinated action, and effective tools, and sports integrity starts with ensuring that betting activity is well-regulated.”
WLA Executive Director Luca Esposito referred to the importance of “creating awareness and making available all the knowledge, guidelines, tools, and position papers to all lotteries around the world so that they can use and apply shared best practices in their jurisdictions as a way of anticipating and looking forward.”
ULIS President Jean-Luc Moner-Banet concluded: “Looking ahead, ULIS must keep strengthening the core of our mission: continuously improving market monitoring, deepening information exchange with sports bodies and law enforcement, expanding our global network, investing in education for future generations, and supporting the Macolin Convention.”
