Sports integrity associations

Integrity and decency are important values for us. Therefore safeguarding the integrity of sports is a central shared goal of sports associations and the betting industry.

The manipulation of sports events does not only tarnish the reputation of sport federations. At the same time it harms bettors as well as the betting industry as a whole. This is why associations protecting the integrity of sports are important stakeholders for us.

On top of our own fraud and manipulation detection processes, bwin.party participates in the network of the European Sports Security Association ("ESSA"), which is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to the monitoring of bookmaker odds. The early warning algorithm, developed by ESSA in 2005, is able to detect fraudulent betting patterns and to initiate a warning to bookmakers and sports associations. ESSA has put in place Memoranda of Understanding with all the leading sport federations, including FIFA, UEFA, the ATP, the IOC, to provide such information soon as it becomes available.

No matter how sophisticated, the detection of fraud and manipulation is not enough to ensure the integrity of sports. Therefore we cooperate with the European Elite Athletes Association ("EU Athletes") that has member associations from 15 countries representing over 25,000 professional athletes. Together with EU Athletes we have developed a code of conduct to set out the guiding principles and provide general advice to all athletes throughout Europe on the issues surrounding the integrity of sport and betting. This code of conduct was accompanied by a comprehensive educational campaign aiming to prevent the corruption of sports in the first place.