UEFA plan gambling crackdown

14 April 2012

UEFA are stepping up the war on corruption in football by signing a landmark security arrangement with a betting company.

European football's governing body are said to be in "advanced negotiations" with Betfair, the world's largest betting exchange, about a deal which would boost their powers to detect betting scams.

The move follows a UEFA match-fixing inquiry into Greek side Panionios's 5-2 UEFA Cup victory over Dinamo Tbilisi a fortnight ago, which was the subject of suspicious gambling patterns.

Betfair already have signed agreements with a number of sporting organisations, including the Jockey Club, the International Cricket Council and the Football Association.

Their deal with UEFA would be on similar lines and would involve the Hammersmithbased company alerting UEFA officials any time gambling activity on their exchange shows evidence of foul play.

Before the Panionios game, for example, there was a highly unusual amount of money staked on such a minor match - an obvious clue to a possible match-rigging.

Betfair's audit trail means it can easily identify the source of any bet placed on its website and, in the event of suspected cheating, the company will disclose details of client accounts to any sporting body with which it has an agreement.

As well as UEFA, the Greek government has launched an inquiry into the Panionios game after bookmakers stopped taking bets on the Greek side losing at half-time and then winning at full-time. There was also a deluge of money for the correct score of 5-2.