New betting campaign to educate 8,500 athletes

This campaign, which started last year, will span 6 European sporting nations, 4 of the largest EU Member States (UK, Germany, France and Spain), 7 sports and target 8,500 athletes.  A unique feature of this campaign is the employment of ex-players and top athletes to go into the dressing rooms and have face-to-face discussions with their peers about how to behave properly in relation to sports and betting.

Walter Palmer, General Secretary of EU Athletes, which runs the player education programme for the EGBA and ESSA, and which will see some 3,000 athletes educated across three countries in 2011, stated that: “The code of conduct on sports betting is designed to help European sports professionals get a grip on, and deal with, issues surrounding the integrity of sport and betting both on- and offline. The decision to adopt a common code across the two programmes can only help strengthen our message.”

Simon Taylor, General Secretary of the UK Professional Players Federation (PPF), which has developed and manages the player betting education programme funded by the RGA and three of its members (bet365, Betfair and Ladbrokes), will reach out to around 5,500 athletes this year. Taylor welcomed the agreement on a single code as a ‘natural progression’ and which will ‘facilitate the exchange of best practice benefiting professional sportspeople, the integrity of sport and betting operators. This is essential in the fight against the small number of people that seek to try and corrupt sporting events.’

The two programmes have already had in the first year a major impact with athletes and in contributing to keeping sport clean with a total of 4,900 athletes reached in 2010. This position is supported by former French international basketball player and President of the French basketball players’ union SNB, Aymeric Jeanneau, who stated that: ‘These sports betting education programmes have already proved their worth in educating the athletes on the rules and regulations regarding sports betting and the issue of match- fixing. The programmes are fundamental to maintaining sporting integrity.'

Sigrid Ligné, EGBA Secretary General, added: ‘Keeping sports clean is of the highest priority for European licensed betting operators. Sportsmen play a vital role in keeping sport clean, as they are the first line of defence in integrity. That’s why we support this partnership with EU Athletes, because as player’s representatives they are best placed to educate their fellow sportsmen.’ 

Clive Hawkswood, CEO of the RGA, stated that: ‘European sport is essentially clean and we want it to remain so. Along with the sophisticated internal integrity mechanisms employed by licensed betting operators, we are committed to working with organisations like the PPF to detect and deter any corruption. The player betting education programme run by the PPF is an important part of that process.’ 

After the first pilot year of the programmes, the main lessons learned are the following: There is a real information problem on the ground, some sports federations have no rules on sports betting, or fail to communicate them to athletes. Besides, Players’ associations are well placed to provide guidance to sportsmen and direct, locker-room level contact with athletes is key.