The battle against corruption in sports is widening in the wake of a call by the International Olympic Committee for establishment of a global system for monitoring betting patterns.
An IOC working group on gambling and sports wants an “Olympic movement monitoring system” similar to the one used at last year’s London Games to be made available to international sports federations to use during their championships.
“Irregular and illegal betting attacks the very foundations of sport, and our efforts to combat the threat require the commitment of a number of important partners, specifically governments,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said at a meeting of the group in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week that was attended by a mix of government representatives, sports organizations and betting operators.
In addition to a central global monitoring system, the core of the committee’s proposals include effective whistle-blower systems for the confidential reporting of suspicious activities to sports bodies, and more legislation from governments targeting irregular and illegal sports betting
The IOC’s own program of stringent monitoring of betting patterns implemented at Beijing in 2008 and later at the Vancouver and London games appears to have been successful to date in keeping Olympic competition clean.
