| Abstract: |
Betting related corruption in sports has increased considerably during the
last years, heavily driven by the globalization and digitalization of the
worldwide betting market. Using recent data by Sportradar, we examine the
particular case of manipulation control in the context of betting regulation
in Germany. Here, the legislator recently introduced the possibility for
private betting companies to legally enter the sports betting market. However,
after 3 years by now, none of the planned licenses has been granted to any
company, leaving the whole market in a legally un-regulated “grey area”.
Instead, further restrictions for many betting types are under discussion
(e.g. the ban of almost all live bets), officially motivated by the aim of
preventing betting related corruption. Our analysis yields the following
results, whose validity is not restricted to Germany: 1) Market regulations
causing the growth of illegal/informal/grey betting markets are
counterpro-ductive. 2) The delegation of the supervision of betting markets
(including fraud detection sys-tems) to an independent authority is
recommended. The same applies to the sanctioning of sus-pected cheaters, which
should not be left to the sport federations alone. 3) The government should
play the central role in fighting betting related corruption. One fundamental
tool for law enforcement is the creation of a legal basis for criminal
prosecution. Such a sport-specific ele-ment of crime, labelled e.g. “sport
fraud”, could be part of a legislation covering many types of sports
manipulation, including doping. |