DGOJ establishes anti-match fixing collaboration with AFE

The framework will see the organisations collaborate on developing preventative actions and education programmes to tackle match fixing and illegal betting in football.

The DGOJ said that both organisations agree that the manipulation of sports competition and betting fraud undermines the interests of participants and operators in the sector, and constitutes one of the greatest threats to professional football.

Match fixing, it added, violates the essential values of the organisations and alienates both athletes and fans from the environment.

For these reasons, the DGOJ and AFE have established a channel of communication, to run informative and educational activities, such as holding seminars, preparing educational materials and the creation of awareness campaigns, both in traditional and social media, and within football clubs themselves.

After introducing and tightening controls around gambling advertising throughout 2020, Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs wrote to teams in the country’s top football division, La Liga, in October warning that any sponsorship agreements with gambling companies must end at the conclusion of the current season.

The end to gambling sponsorship is part of new restrictions on gambling marketing, that Spain originally in February, which were subsequently tightened as a temporary response to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in April.

The tightened measures included a blanket ban on gambling sponsorships for sports teams, as well as a ban on all customer bonuses. Although originally intended to be temporary, these measures were then incorporated into Spain’s long-term gaming regulations and submitted to the European Commission for approval.

The regulations came into force earlier this month, on 3 November, amid major criticisms from industry groups.