Sportradar partners CoE for integrity risk project
Sports data provider Sportradar has partnered the Council of Europe for a new pilot project to assess risk factors that affect the integrity of professional sports around the world.
This pilot project will leverage the Network of the National Platforms, a group established by the CoE in 2016 – and also known as the Group of Copenhagen – through which states collaborate on sporting integrity issues.
This collaboration between states on such issues represents a key component of the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, or Macolin Convention. This came into force in September this year, almost five years after it was first introduced. It sets out a legal framework to tackle match fixing in sport, as well as creating legal definitions for issues such as conflicts of interest, illegal betting, and controls to address poor governance and the handling of confidential information.
Sportradar's initiative, however, will be coordinated by Australia's national sporting integrity platform, with a view to gaining a better understanding of the global betting market, and challenges facing professional sport. Sportradar Integrity Services will provide data-driven insights to support the project.
Pilot projects have already been implemented in Belgium, Georgia, Norway and Portugal. This will now to be expanded with the idea of providing an effective methodology to all 32 countries in the Group of Copenhagen.
“As a first step, we wish to evaluate the present situation with regard to national sports betting markets, and the current landscape in terms of betting liquidity and the number of bookmakers currently active in these markets,” the secretariat of the CoE explained.
“The data, analysis and insights which Sportradar will provide us with will be vital in informing the next steps of this process, and we welcome their cooperation in the early but crucial research stages of this important undertaking.”
Sportradar Integrity Services managing director, Andreas Krannich, added: “Sportradar have been firm supporters of the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention since its proposed inception, and we are honoured to be a supporting partner in one of its major projects.
“We have throughout the years supported various state authorities, government institutions, national platforms and sport federations in their anti match-fixing efforts, by providing data-driven analysis of the risk factors within their regions to help inform future policy.”