SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has signed a four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA).
The pair will work closely to detect irregular betting patterns and suspicious activities in football matches across Asia.
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Cooperation is a vital part of any effective integrity
monitoring and investigatory framework and IBIA is delighted to be able to strengthen its relationship with the AFC through this important information sharing collaboration.
“For its part, IBIA will seek to safeguard the AFC ecosystem by utilising the monitoring of its members’ global customer account activity, which covers over $300bn in sports betting per annum.”
The deal is said to mark a ‘significant step forward’ in the fight against match-fixing in Asian football with both organisations dedicated to creating a secure environment for the sport, fostering trust amongst fans, players and all stakeholders.
AFC General Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs, Andrew Mercer, added: “The AFC’s Vision and Mission has outlined our steadfast ambitions to uphold the highest ethical and sporting standards, and we are committed towards preserving our key tenets of fair play and integrity.
“Leveraging on strong collaborations with the world’s leading organisations is imperative to our fight against match-fixing and this MoU with IBIA further strengthens our ability to ensure football in Asia remains clean for the benefit of our future generation of fans, players and all our valued stakeholders.
“The AFC is committed to promoting integrity, ethics, and fair play in Asian football and we are pleased to work with IBIA as we strive to enhance our capabilities to monitor and address suspicious activities, ensuring that football in Asia is safeguarded from the threats of match manipulation.”
