European Lotteries joins a strong network of partners on sports integrity
European Lotteries joins the project 'Keep Crime out of Sport – Together against sports competitions manipulations'.
Written by Redazione GiocoNews
The project 'Keep Crime out of Sport – Together against sports competitions manipulations' (KCOOS), led by the Council of Europe, and funded by the European Commission and the Council of Europe was inaugurated on 9-10 February in Brussels. The project will seek to explore innovative approaches aimed at fighting the manipulation of sports competitions, promote the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (the Convention), raise awareness and exchange experience and good practices on the fight against match fixing and illegal betting, assist with the transposition of Convention requirements into states and encourage better international cooperation.
The Convention provides for a complete set of provisions that address different issues, such as education and prevention, domestic co-ordination, good governance principles and conflict of interests, exchange of information, setting up of national platforms, criminal sanctions etc. The Convention also facilitates the effective fight against illegal betting, (“any sports betting activity whose type or operator is not allowed under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located”), as it invites Parties to consider adopting measures against illegal betting, like IP blocking, payments blocking and advertising ban.
EL President Hansjörg Höltkemeier states: “Driven by our core principles: integrity, solidarity and precaution, EL has been in the forefront of the fight against match-fixing for years and this project is fully in line with the aforementioned principles. The Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sport Competitions is currently the most elaborate initiative world-wide against match-fixing and EL encourages all states to consider signing it. EL, as an associated partner of the project, will be actively supporting and contributing to the project activities, which we are convinced, will constitute a very positive step in the on-going fight against match-fixing and illegal betting.”
Through the KCOOS, the Council of Europe and the project partners, shall provide maximum visibility and information on the Convention in order to encourage further signatures and notably ratifications. The development of capacity building in terms of the implementation of the Convention, which includes support to the setting up of national platforms and regulatory authorities, the facilitation of exchange of information and the strengthening of the institutional capacity of relevant authorities, is a key element of this project.