IOC Strengthens Ties With Bookies Against Fixing Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee and Betfair signed an agreement regarding the prevention of betting corruption during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

Usually, the Olympic Games don’t attract the attention of bettors significantly and there were no major fixing scandals in the past, particularly specific for different sports.

However, the IOC would like to prevent any future problems, therefore this week it is introducing a new centralized system at the Sochi Winter Games, which will monitor the betting patterns regarding different gambling operators.

Betting companies support the preventive measures

James Midmer, the spokesman of the leading online and mobile betting provider Betfair, commented: “The interests of sports governing bodies, like the IOC, and Betfair are completely aligned in wanting to ensure customers can bet in fair, transparent and secure markets on exciting sporting events.”

Betfair also said that it plans to offer more than 1,000 betting possibilities during the Winter Olympics, complying with Russian gambling laws. It predicts that ice hockey and Alpine skiing will be the most popular betting sports at the 2014 games.

In addition to Betfair, IOC made similar agreement with the European Sports Security Association, which links different bookmakers like the major British operators William Hill and Ladbrokes.

Mark Adams, the IOC communications director said: “We are very pleased with these agreements, which build on our successful collaboration during London 2012.”

William Hill’s spokesperson commented that the Winter Olympics is pretty small event for the company and there is a high chance that the total turnover will only be around GBP 500,000 for both weeks of the Olympic Games.