SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
No suspicious betting activity or other match-fixing concerns were found during the 2024 EUROs, UEFA has announced.
To deliver this outcome, the governing body developed a bespoke anti-match-fixing action plan, combining education and prevention sessions with monitoring and intelligence.
The plan drew upon lessons learnt from previous tournaments and cooperation with other organisations, and all 24 teams attended anti-match-fixing awareness sessions ahead of the tournament.
“Tailoring this content for each audience is key to maximising its impact, and so UEFA’s anti-match-fixing unit has developed a specific presentation for elite players, focusing on recent trends and cases as well as the importance of reporting any approaches related to match-fixing,” a UEFA release said.
“The integrity officers then translated and adapted the presentation to each team’s national context.”
Meanwhile, tournament match officials also attended a tailored integrity briefing during the referees’ preparatory workshop in Frankfurt in May. This was developed as a refresher course, focusing on the risks related to match-fixing approaches via social media as well as recent trends such as spot-fixing.
Furthermore, UEFA’s European football anti-match-fixing working group held its annual meeting in Hamburg on 5 July.
Core representatives include UEFA, Council of Europe, Group of Copenhagen, Europol and Interpol, joined by others from CONMEBOL, the International Olympic Committee, Sportradar, ULIS, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and representatives of the National Platform of Germany.
UEFA explained that integrity experts discussed the milestones and challenges of the past 12 months, as well as recent trends and how to jointly move towards potential resolutions.
Particular focus was given to the results of UEFA’s three-year anti-match-fixing action plan, which concluded at the end of the 2023/24 season.
