Football asks bookies to help boost the integrity of the game
Football’s global governing body has teamed-up with one of Europe’s largest online bookmakers in an attempt to better safeguard the integrity of the sport.
Unibet has signed a co-operation agreement with a subsidiary of Fifa called Early Warning System (EWS), under which the gambling firm will “exchange information with EWS and will co-operate on efforts to improve prevention measures and education in the field of sports betting integrity”.
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EWS was set up by Fifa in 2006 in order to tackle, detect and prevent match manipulation and is part of what Fifa refer to as its “Integrity Initiative”. Agreeing with bookmakers to share information is a strategy which it hopes will help the implementation of this programme.
“Matchfixing is a threat to football,” said Eric Konings, Unibet's sports betting integrity officer.
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“It is our belief that co-operation between all relevant stakeholders is the key to eradicating this problem, and therefore, we are happy to team up with Fifa in this battle. We operate under a ‘see something, say something’ approach.
“This further supports our efforts in keeping the world of sports, and our platform, free of criminal activity,” he said.