Betting Integrity on Sports and Horse Racing Committee
The WLA Betting Integrity on Sports and Horse Racing Committee (BISHRC) is dedicated to furthering the interests of WLA members that provide betting on horse races and sports, as well as to preserving the integrity of sport by leading the fight against match fixing and illegal betting.
Upholding the highest ethical principles, the BISHRC develops materials to assist members in achieving their goals of retaining and attracting the next generation of customers in an ethical, transparent, and responsible way.
In 2023, it published the Horse Betting Marketing Guidelines, containing industry best practices including:
- Offering guidance to assist WLA members market horse betting products in a competitive and socially responsible way.
- Considering different types of offerings and games and examining a model for assessing risk levels of addiction for these.
- Describing suitable distribution channels and how to plan, execute and manage responsible promotions in different social media platforms.
Raising awareness through events
Through the organization of events, the BISHRC raises awareness of key issues and enables the exchange of useful guidance among different industry stakeholders. Working closely with the United Lotteries for Integrity in Sport (ULIS) and the European Lotteries, the WLA-EL-ULIS Sports Integrity Seminar was held in Lausanne in June, together with the support of the IOC - Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions. The event attracted around 70 participants from across the global lotteries, sports and sports betting ecosystem.
The annual WLA-EL Sports Betting Seminar, held in Paris in November and hosted by lottery member La Française des Jeux (FDJ), was attended by around 100 participants. Speakers from sports organizations, WLA and EL lottery members, and other stakeholders involved in ensuring sports integrity, provided participants from sports betting directors, lottery executives and collaborators responsible for sports betting, marketing and product development, and odds compilers with insights on topics, such as the different uses of artificial intelligence, the power of sports analytics, sport books trends and statistical betting. See more on both events in the Continuing education section.
The BISHRC works with different partners to raise awareness of sports competition manipulation and related illicit activities. One such organization is the Council of Europe (CoE) and its Addressing Competition Manipulation Together (ACT) project. The BISHRC actively participated in an ACT event in Morocco in November. Additionally, its work done to define responsible and reasonable bets is being used by the CoE Macolin Convention Working Group.