The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) has added three new associate members in its fight against manipulation in sports betting.

Following the launch of its updated statutes in September 2020, which permitted associate membership “to all entities engaged in enhancing sports integrity”, the CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, the Hungarian Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs (SARA) and the Greek National Platform for Sports Integrity (EPATHLA) have all now joined the GLMS as members.

Luca Esposito, GLMS General Secretary, commented: “Exchanging information is paramount in the fight against manipulation of sports competitions, expanding our membership to include the growing stakeholders involved in the sports and sports betting community helps us in achieving our objective to preserve the integrity of sport.”

GLMS President Ludovico Calvi added: “The challenges facing the global sport integrity community in the years to come are massive, especially post Covid and we need true collective actions and collective responsibilities to succeed.

“By implementing new and more efficient statutes, GLMS was able to grow a diversified membership base involving new strategic stakeholders, including public authorities and key sport Integrity global stakeholders with a direct engagement in drafting sustainable legislative and regulatory betting evolutions.”

CSCF provides advice and education on integrity-related issues for stakeholders in the sport and governmental sectors, while the GLMS has already partnered in three of its projects – Integrisports, Integrisports Next and Integriball.

They have also provided GLMS with a platform to interact directly and through its lotteries with the law enforcement and prosecutorial sectors.

Speaking on CSCF’s new membership, Dr. Norbert Rubicsek, Director and former Hungarian Lt. Colonel and Intelligence Officer at Europol, said: “It has been enlightening for our country partners to engage with GLMS and with the GLMS lottery member at national level, resulting in concrete national actions.

“Becoming an associate member can further strengthen our collaboration, in education and regulatory issues as well as building a stronger inter-stakeholder relationship, combining efforts and encouraging consistency across domains.”

Meanwhile, SARA joins as GLMS’ first regulatory authority associate member after sustaining a successful relationship with GLMS lottery member Szerencsejáték Zrt.

Dr. Marcell Biró, President of SARA, noted: “We are glad that the Global Lottery Monitoring System has supported our authority’s application to become an associate member of GLMS.

“This cooperation will contribute to our efforts as a regulatory authority to fight match-fixing via gaining information on the risks endangering the integrity of sports and on effective prevention tools.”

Szerencsejáték Zrt. CEO Dr. Alex Bozóky has welcomed SARA’s admittance as a GLMS associate member. Bozóky remarked: “As a responsible national lottery operator, Szerencsejáték Zrt. has long been dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of sport.

“To this end, beyond our internal rules and regulations we also advocate the most stringent guidelines of international federations, furthermore we welcome all efforts that aim to further strengthen this mission.

“We are convinced that the decision by the Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs to join the Global Monitoring System is also another important step in this field.”

EPATHLA’s new membership aims to “boost Greece’s collaborative work in addressing manipulation of sports competitions”, with OPAP an active GLMS lottery member in the country.

George Mavrotas, Greek Secretary General of Sport at the Ministry of Culture and Sport, said: “During the last years Greece has taken significant steps for combating match-fixing. We strongly believe in value-based sport and this agreement between EPATHLA and GLMS, a leading partner in the field, is another step towards this direction.

“It is essential to join forces and exploit synergies in order to protect sport from the corrosive phenomena that devalue it.”