by Anton Johan
The issue of corruption in sports and the measures taken to combat it was the subject of the recent C5 Conference on Sports Law and Business.
A number of speakers had their say on the matter, with Matthew Johnson, the head of legal regulation at the UK Football Association a key speaker on the issue, as well as the legal counsel for Betfair.
Johnson said that one of his main responsibilities was maintaining the integrity of football in the country and educating players at all levels about gambling.
"There is an awful lot of money sloshing around football, and where you have a lot of money you can have a lot of crime," he said.
Betfair regularly shares data with the UK Gambling Commission and with other sports bodies in the country, revealed David O'Reilly, speaking for Betfair.
He outlined the measures taken to combat gambling corruption, including the hiring of a permanent eight-man integrity team that is incorporated into the group's larger anti-money laundering section.
"There is common ground between sport and gambling," he said, "in that it is in everyone's interest for sport to be clean."
"I don't think it is up to us to say how sports should regulate their players," he added, "but education is a good starting point."
Betfair shared its online audit trail that could help track unusual betting patterns through sophisticated technology.
O'Reilly concluded by saying: "I believe that fixing in relation to sport is low-level, but we will all suffer if people don't believe sport is clean, because they will not bet on it."
