The agreement comes after UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin, signalled that the fight against match-fixing is one of his major priorities. European football’s governing body has developed, and financed, a number of initiatives designed to protect the integrity of the European game.
“We are delighted that ESSA will be teaming up with UEFA in our mission to eradicate the manipulation of matches from football, and the exchange of information between trusted partners is a key milestone in this fight”, said UEFA’s managing director of integrity, Emilio Garcia. “Match-fixing is a disease that threatens football’s soul, and the game must be safeguarded from those who seek to profit from it by criminal means.”
UEFA operates a betting fraud detection system (BFDS), which monitors and analyses betting activities on about 32,000 matches in Europe each year, in both UEFA and domestic football competitions.
ESSA holds positions on match-fixing and betting policy forums at the European Commission, Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“ESSA has played a key role in coordinating and focusing the licensed, regulated betting industry’s zero-tolerance approach to the threat of betting-related match-fixing in sport,” said Khalid Ali, secretary general of ESSA.
“This agreement is further proof of our ongoing commitment to helping all sports authorities maintain the highest levels of integrity.”
Source: GMB / iGaming Business
