John Chidley-Hill, Canadian Press
Posted on Thursday, April 18, 2024 5:45 pmEDT
Last updated Thursday April 18, 2024 5:45 pmEDT
Canada’s sports integrity watchdog is pushing for stricter policies to prevent competitive manipulation and match-fixing at all levels of competition.
The Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport issued its first draft of a new program to prevent competitive rigging on Wednesday, the same day the NBA banned former Toronto Raptors backup center Jontay Porter for his role. in irregular bets around his performance on the field. Jeremy Luke, executive director of the sports integrity body, said he hopes Porter’s case is a wake-up call for Canadians.
“People are becoming more aware of this risk, or at least now they are aware of this risk,” Luke said Thursday. “It’s really important that we put mechanisms in place to prevent, or at least mitigate, the risk as much as possible.”
The NBA found that Porter violated its rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on league games. Luke said Porter’s harsh punishment was not surprising.
“I thought (the NBA) needed to take significant action in this particular case, but I also wasn’t surprised by the situation itself,” Luke said. “The legalization of sports betting on single events and the proliferation of advertising certainly increases the risk of competitive manipulation.”
The CCES held symposiums on the dangers of competitive rigging and match-fixing in 2019 and 2023, and after each of them published white papers calling for stricter federal policies around sports betting. The 2019 report was issued before Canada legalized sports betting and the 2023 filing was based on those original findings.
The draft Canadian Program to Prevent Competition Rigging released this week was co-authored by CCES and the Canadian Olympic Committee, with a working group that included national sports organizations from badminton, basketball, cross-country skiing, curling, hockey, racquetball, soccer, speed skating and squash, as well as Sports Canada and AthletesCAN.
The proposed national policy includes comprehensive educational programming aimed at athletes, coaches and other participants. If adopted, it would empower CCES to administer the policy on behalf of any sports organization that joins it.
“That’s similar to the way anti-doping works in Canada, where there is an organization (CCES) that is independent of the sport and that administers the policy on behalf of the sport,” Luke said. “That way you can have confidence that the organization has the necessary authority and can move forward with any disciplinary procedures that may be necessary.”
According to NBA investigators, among other violations, Porter feigned illness to withdraw from a Raptors game in Toronto to affect bets placed on his performance.
The Ontario Alcohol and Gaming Commission, which oversees sports betting in the province, said an Ontario Provincial Police office embedded in that agency was investigating the Porter case. An AGCO spokesperson cited Section 209 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which prohibits “cheating while gambling or betting with the intent to defraud anyone.”
The CCES and other competition manipulation experts say that Article 209 is not strong enough.
The CCES white papers and draft policy call on Canada to sign the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, better known as the Macolin Convention after the Swiss city where it was written. That multilateral treaty aims to prevent, detect and punish match-fixing in sport and is open to all countries (Australia, for example, is a non-European signatory) and requires all members of the convention to have clearly articulated laws. about competition. handling.
“Having law enforcement involved in these situations is very helpful from an information sharing perspective, from the perspective of organized crime potentially being involved in this type of activity,” Luke said. “Given the volume of money that is bet on sport, which can lead to those types of situations, and given the serious safety issues that could arise from that, we need to make sure that we have laws that can address this and make sure that we have I think that it is important to have a framework in which betting operators and regulators can report things, and the police can take action or law enforcement can take effective action on it.”
– With files from Allison Jones in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2024.