Sport Integrity Australia chief warns of trickle-down match fixing threat in streaming era

Sport Integrity Australia chief executive David Sharpe expressed "grave concerns" over the relationship between gambling and sport, and called for greater education from the elite to grassroots.

Sharpe revealed that gambling issues among athletes as well as organised crime and unregulated betting presented a major match fixing risk, with lower levels of sport also becoming vulnerable as streaming leads to more gambling markets emerging.

In the ACT, all local first grade competitions are broadcast live and free online, while the Canberra Capitals, Canberra Cavalry and Canberra United include semi-professional players in their squads.

"It's what I call the displacement effect - the more you focus on a particular level of risk and sport integrity response, the more the market will move to where there is less attention," Sharpe told The Canberra Times.

"Organised crime will exploit a vulnerability anywhere there's a profit to be gained.

"Those sports don't have the same capabilities as professional sports to target integrity and that's why our role is critical.

"We're actually developing an online education capability, an audit system for all sports around that way they retain and use their data to highlight what the risks are and how they store information or stream.

"But it's very hard for sports if they do stream for that entertainment value to control who's watching and then what it's used for."

Sport Integrity Australia have embedded integrity officers with sports that don't have integrity units to help build frameworks around match fixing education.

Last week Sharpe was at the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee to update on the Australian Sports Wagering Scheme.

It has been proposed to create a "clearer, more transparent, and consistent sports wagering regulation to protect Australian sport from sports wagering related threats."

Sport Integrity Australia are awaiting government direction on the next steps for the scheme, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this month announced a crackdown on advertising by online betting companies.

Sharpe said it was both the regulated and unregulated market - especially in south-east Asia - that present risk though, and there have been clear cases in Australia that serve as a warning.

"The global estimated profit on the unregulated betting markets was about 1.7 trillion Euro ($A2.6 trillion) in 2021," he said.

"Just 18 months ago, a global match fixing syndicate in table tennis was taken out in Sydney.

"We worked with New South Wales Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and overseas bodies."

Sport Integrity Australia boast strong partnerships with ACIC, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and even Border Force, as well as every state law enforcement to combat match fixing.

Sport Integrity Australia's focus is to continue spreading education from grassroots and beyond. The body is constantly looking to adapt to stay ahead of the curve too.

They've developed a "whistleblowing" hotline to be available early next year called the Confidential Reporting Scheme which will help weed out cheats in any matter relating to sports integrity.

"We're seen as a world leader. No-one is doing what we do," Sharpe said.

"We have 97 recognised sports in this country under the Australian Sports Commission, and of those sports 85 of them are signed up for consistent policies that outline prohibited behaviours, but also how we respond to those behaviours.

"Australians hate a cheat and we'll call it out.

"As of January we will launch the Anonymous Reporting Scheme - a whistleblowing scheme where people can call behaviours out anonymously.

"And it doesn't matter what level, we will come after them."

The message the Sport Integrity Australia boss wants to push most is to get athletes to think about the consequences around match fixing.

"It is all about educating people to know if you go down that path, and you think you want to be involved with throwing a match for quick dollar, your life will be ruined," he said.

"The way trends and alerts happen in the regulated betting market, we are able to tell now when things aren't right.

"Sport is central to our culture. My goal is to keep people in sport and educate them about the benefit of it and not to make poor decisions."

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