Jdigital, Spain’s online gambling trade association, has shared knowledge and insights on match-fixing and sports corruption with the National Police Department.

This week in Barcelona, Jorge Hinojosa, Director General of Jdigital, participated in a series of workshops organised by the Training & Development unit of Spain’s police department. 

Jdigital’s workshops aim to strengthen the training of police officers across Spanish provinces, investigating sports corruption through the sharing of relevant information and data.

Furthermore, Jdigital advised on the real-life dynamics of match-fixing in sports competitions and how to prevent related criminal influences that impact sports integrity.

“Corruption in sports benefits no one; it is a burden for operators, gamblers, athletes, clubs and competitions,” Hinojosa explained.

“Education of sportsmen and women is key to preventing cases of match-fixing but, in the event that a case does occur, collaboration and cooperation among clubs, competitions, operators, law enforcement authorities and international betting integrity associations is essential to act quickly and effectively.”

Informing Spanish officers, Jdigital incorporated the latest data and insights of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) – global gambling’s unified organisation on match fixing and betting fraud.

A member of the IBIA, Jdigital shares insights on regulated betting markets, with a high level of consumer channelling and measures to protect the integrity of users, sports and operators.

“In these cases, it is more important to know the IP of the account or the origin of the funds used, rather than the name of the user, as their identity might have been impersonated,” Hinojosa added.

“In relation to these recommendations, Jdigital has recalled the strict regulations as well as security and control protocols that licensed online gambling operators comply with and which guarantee exhaustive monitoring of all operations that take place on their platforms.”

Sports integrity and betting fraud have been placed at the forefront of the Spanish government’s ongoing restructuring of Spain’s federal gambling laws. 

This week, Spain’s Congress of Deputies approved a set of new measures to be applied to the ‘Gambling Law’ – in which the government seeks to apply a ‘central control’ on sports betting integrity duties.

As such, Spanish MPs will vote for the gambling regulator DGOJ to become the central authority collecting relevant operator/business data related to sports betting integrity disciplines to be shared with relevant authorities.

The amendments to Spain’s Gambling Law have been backed by Consejo Superior del Deporte (CSD) – the Higher Sports Council that represents the interests of Spain professional sports leagues and Federations.