The manipulation of sports competitions and illegal sports betting pose a grave threat to the world lottery community. As such the WLA and EL have invested greatly in the fight to keep sports fair, honest, and transparent. With the establishment of the GLMS in 2015, which became the United Lotteries for Integrity in Sports (ULIS) in 2023, WLA and EL made significant inroads in their endeavor to thwart the manipulation of sports competitions and to preserve the integrity sports. Their efforts are beginning to pay off. The awareness of corruption in sports and betting fraud is steadily growing in the industry and preventative measures are beginning to take shape.
As a global non-profit association, with a multi-stakeholder network, ULIS supports licensed state lotteries in their mission to ensure integrity and fight crime in sport, offering a complete ecosystem of preventive (education, training, networking) and interventional services (monitoring, detection, reporting, stakeholder and law enforcement collaboration) that are lottery savvy.
It also supports other sports integrity associations, sports entities, national gambling bodies, law enforcement agencies and intergovernmental bodies, and regulators to work together with licensed state lotteries and exchange information under one roof.
Find out more about ULIS.
A well-defined strategic roadmap
Before the CoE concluded the Macolin Convention, there was no internationally coordinated effort to address corruption in sports and illegal betting. What the manipulation of sports competitions was had never been formally and clearly defined. In some jurisdictions match-fixing was not even viewed as a criminal offense. Among the intrinsic values of the Macolin Convention is that it provides a well-defined strategic roadmap in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions and illegal betting.
Before the CoE concluded the Macolin Convention, there was no internationally coordinated effort to address corruption in sports and illegal betting.
Under the Macolin Convention, the manipulation of sports competitions is now defined as, “an intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sports competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sports competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others.” The aim here is to not only criminalize the act of sports-competition manipulation, but also the mere intent to manipulate any sports competition.
This definition represents a watershed moment in the fight against match-fixing, illegal betting, and other forms of corruption in sports, as it widely covers all forms of sports competition manipulation and is not restricted to the fixing of a match on the playing field. Being that this definition was created by an overwhelming consensus of national and international stakeholders – from the world of sports, from law enforcement, from the sports betting industry, and from government ministries – it embodies the will of a global community dedicated to preserving the integrity of sports. The definition was also intentionally drafted broad enough, and flexible enough, to meet the legislative requirements of most countries. It has now been widely accepted around the globe, most notably by the International Olympic Committee and by Interpol.
Likewise, what was to be considered illegal betting had never been clearly defined. This was particularly a problem for the lottery industry in the EU where free cross-border commerce is welcomed, an issue that threatened the sovereignty of the state lotteries when offshore online lottery operators began offering their products in EU countries. Many of these online lotteries were selling their gaming products in countries where they had no license to operate.
From backing grass-roots sports, to supporting aspiring young athletes, state lotteries contribute greatly to sports.
The Macolin Convention defines illegal sports betting as, “any sports betting activity whose type or operator is not allowed under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located”. This definition has gone a long way to bolster the regulated gaming market and to strengthen the sovereignty of state lotteries within their respective borders. It reflects the values of the world lottery community and is now anchored in the WLA Code of Conduct and the EL Sport Charter.
The Macolin Convention also clearly defines sports betting itself, as well as two further categories namely, “Irregular sports betting” and “Suspicious sports betting”.
- Sports betting is defined as, “any wagering of a stake of monetary value (i.e., rising a financial loss) in the expectation of a prize of monetary value, subject to a future and uncertain occurrence related to a sports competition’’.
- Irregular sports betting is defined as, “any sports betting activity inconsistent with usual or anticipated patterns of the market in question or related to betting on a sports competition whose course has unusual characteristics”.
- Suspicious sports betting is defined as, “any sports betting activity which, according to reliable and consistent evidence, appears to be linked to a manipulation of the sports competition on which it is offered”.
These definitions are the foundation of the Macolin Convention and are important in enforcing its provisions. They provide lotteries and sports betting operators, as well as all relevant stakeholders, with the strategic guidance needed in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions and illegal betting.
A call to action
The integrity of the lottery and sports betting sector is intrinsically tied to the integrity of sports, both on and off the playing field. The manipulations of sports competitions damages not only the integrity of sports, but also the reputation of the lottery and sports betting sector. Cheating in sports, also cheats the punters who invest their money in our sports betting products and undermines their trust in our lottery and sports betting operations. It is therefore in the best interest of WLA member lotteries to demonstrate their firm commitment to honesty and fairness in sports by advocating ratification of the Macolin Convention in their respective countries.
Sports integrity is built upon a foundation of fair, honest, and transparent competition.
Sports integrity is built upon a foundation of fair, honest, and transparent competition. The lottery’s mission of raising funds for good causes would be lost should the integrity of sports be compromised. More than half of all state lotteries worldwide offer some form of sports betting. As such, sports betting will continue to play a vital role in the lottery sector’s quest to raise money for worthy causes.
Owing to the burgeoning market for sports betting in the USA and in reference to global lottery sales, the number of lotteries offering sports betting will continue to increase in the coming decade. According to the WLA Global Lottery Data Compendium 2020 (GLDC), slightly more than one quarter of total global lottery sales was raised through sports betting. This illustrates the vital role that sports betting plays in raising funds for good causes.
Likewise, the GLDC reported that WLA member lotteries returned around USD 85.7 billion to society in support of worthy causes in 2019. Of that, an estimated USD 5 billion – roughly 6% – went to fund sports. From backing grass-roots sports, to supporting aspiring young athletes, state lotteries contribute greatly to sports in their respective jurisdictions. From this perspective, the lottery sector has and will always maintain a vested interest in the integrity of sports.
As the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions and illegal sports betting has become imperative, governments around the globe have been accelerating their efforts to regulate sports betting in the hopes of safeguarding vital revenue for the funding of good causes.
Governments around the globe have been accelerating their efforts to regulate sports betting in the hopes of safeguarding vital revenue for the funding of good causes.
The Macolin Convention can offer these governments a path to regulation that is both comprehensive and cohesive. It provides a regulatory model that is internationally accepted and is structured to tackle a global problem through transnational cooperation. It is therefore in the best interest of WLA member lotteries around the globe to appeal to their government legislators to ratify the Macolin Convention, today.
Should you have any question about the Macolin Convention ratification process, or how your country can establish a National Platform, we would be happy to help you.
For more information, please visit the dedicated website of the Council of Europe at www.coe.int/en/web/sport/t-mc or contact Sophie Kwasny, Head of the Sport Conventions Division of the Council of Europe at sophie.kwasny@coe.int.
You can also contact the WLA at communication@world-lotteries.org.
