Match-fixing spreading to sports such as chess and darts, select committee told

Match-fixing has increased at an “extraordinary” rate across the world, a select committee of the House of Lords has been told, with organised crime networks even infiltrating chess as they look to launder proceeds from drug and human trafficking.

The International Agreements Committee heard startling testimony on Thursday about the rise of match-fixing as part of its scrutiny of the Macolin Convention, the first and only international treaty on the manipulation of sports competitions. The UK signed the convention in 2018 but has only recently brought it forward for ratification by parliament.

Moses Swaibu, a former Crystal Palace academy player who was jailed for his part in a match-fixing scandal while at Bromley in 2013 and has since devoted himself to combatting the issue, claimed authorities have failed to keep pace with the rise of prediction markets and new technologies.

“In the time of our match-fixing technology was nowhere near where it is today,” said Swaibu, who founded Game Changer 360, a company that focuses on the education of sports integrity. Swaibu also runs integrity workshops for the Football Association, which are compulsory for top-flight academies. “The new match-fixers are in plain sight and law enforcement have not been able to grasp what that advancement looks like.

“I honestly believe it has got worse. In my experience, from the past and now, athletes are not aware of the rules. They do not know what the Macolin Convention is. There is no social media or awareness. Match-fixing is getting younger and the solutions are old and outdated. There is much more to be done.”

Dr Madalina Diaconu, a specialist in sports integrity who is a member of Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body and has also worked for the International Olympic Committee, claimed international cooperation between sports organisations, the sports betting industry and law enforcement was essential to fighting organised crime.

Diaconu said: “In the last 20-something years there has been a certain increase in the phenomenon of match-fixing. It is getting worse in the sense that the phenomenon is amplifying and we are now facing globalised trade and an extraordinary increase in online exchanges. It is possible to access these services now from anywhere and at any age.

“It has become an increasing problem. It is also changing in nature. Fifteen years ago I would have said football, cricket and tennis are the sports most effected by this and the most deregulated markets would be the Asian markets. Nowadays I would say all sports are concerned. We have seen match-fixing scandals in sports that were much less susceptible to this kind of phenomena like darts or chess or skiing, and it is also happening everywhere, not only in Asia or Europe.

“We know for a fact that organised crime syndicates are behind a large number of match fixing schemes. It is quite logical because match-fixing offers a golden opportunity for organised crime syndicates to easily access this market and to gain from high profits immediately. More importantly for some crime syndicates, they can also launder the illegal proceeds of even more serious crimes such as drug trafficking and human trafficking, especially of young girls.”

Committee member Lord Boateng claimed there had been a 92% rise in the number of recorded cases of suspicious football matches in Africa, with an increase in online sports betting in north and central America also fuelling the problem.

But Dr Diaconu insisted: “I believe the Macolin Convention does work and has the potential to be a game-changer on the field. Each country that participates has to set up a national hub, a centralised database if you like, where all the necessary information is stored and is available live. Belgium and Spain have ratified the convention and there have been very successful operations in those two countries lately, with the help of Europol and Interpol, where large Mafia syndicates were taken down. These syndicates were responsible for thousands of match-fixing events throughout the world and the Belgium police and Spanish police were able to use the instruments of the convention and put everyone behind bars.”