Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill

Written evidence submitted by the Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC)  (GB 08)

Submission to the Committee Stage of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill

Introduction and the importance of sport having legal relationships with betting to protect integrity and secure a Fair Return

 

1. SROC was established 8 years ago to bring together major international and national sporting organisations. Together it represents many of Europe’s (and the world’s) most popular sports and competitions. The purpose of SROC is to share ideas and information and present opinions and advice to national Governments, EU institutions and International Treaty Organisations. More information about SROC can be read at http://sroc.info/

2. SROC members seek proper recognition of the value of sport and effective protection for their rights. Our members collectively support the need for a closer relationship between governments, regulators, sporting organisations and betting operators in order to combat the integrity threat to their sports, posed by match fixing and betting syndicates, and are united in their support of the principle that sporting organisations deserve a fair return from betting operators, who benefit immensely from the sporting events organised by our members.

3. Members of SROC believe in strong and effective rights and that the income streams they create are vital for investment in sport at all levels: good quality stadia, youth development, elite standards, viewing experience, community and grassroots investment. SROC was established to promote and support the benefits that accrue to sports participants and sports fans. Free-riding of our sporting events undermines all of these things as can a lack of effective regulation.

4. The concept of a sports right in betting is not new in the UK. In fact this arrangement existed for many decades. Historically in the UK, the integrity of sport was upheld by the legal relationship that existed between sports bodies and betting operators under the UK’s Copyright law. Under this arrangement a betting company could only take bets on a sport if it had the agreement of the sport whose content it uses to do so. This meant that the sport could impose through contractual arrangements processes for information sharing, integrity protections and the payment of fair return for the use of the product.

5. It was under this rights regime that the football authorities in the UK were for many decades able to prevent the betting operators from offering high risk bet types and could secure an income stream to invest in integrity measures and sport development. It was only in 2004 following the unexpected and unintended consequence of a European Court of Justice judgement into the 1996 Database Directive that sport was deemed to no longer have Copyright over its content. It was at this point that sport in the UK, including horseracing, lost the legal ability to protect its integrity and earn a fair return.

6. SROC believes that Governments around the world should give sport the powers backed by statute to enter into legal relationships with betting operators. This way the sports themselves can decide on the appropriate level of risk to allow in betting on their sport and as in other areas such as ticketing, hospitality, sponsorship and broadcast rights, the two parties can agree on the respective value to each other in the market pace.

The lack of statutory relationship between sports and betting operators has been criticised by several European Parliament reports over the last 4 years [1] (including one drafted this year by Ashley Fox Conservative MEP for the South West of England). The EP indeed considers that protecting sports competitions from any unauthorised commercial exploitation would also enable organisers to determine which aspects of the event may be the legitimate subject of betting and thus reduce the risk of match-fixing and fraud. Hence the recognition of sports competitions organisers’ rights would not only be fair legally and economically but would also contribute to the fight to preserve the integrity of sport.

Importance of protecting Sport’s Integrity – SROC supports the Gambling (Advertising and Licensing) Bill and calls for its strengthening

 

7. Sporting events derive their value from the premise that they are a fair competition played within the rules. Participants expect this of their opponents and the public who pay to watch sport certainly expect it. Promoting and upholding integrity is therefore one of the key functions that every member of SROC undertakes.

8. In recent years there has been a huge growth in betting on sports through many different platforms, but particularly on-line betting. SROC members are concerned at the threats to their integrity that can arise from gambling on their sport and the increasing allegations of match fixing and prevalence of gambling syndicates.

9. Match fixing undermines public confidence in a sporting competition which in turn can have the effect of wiping out the commercial and moral value that vests in that particular sport with drastic consequences for its ability to secure TV coverage, sponsorship, and growth in grassroots participation.

10. There are very few sports that have not had to deal with betting integrity and SROC welcomes the measures contained within this Bill which will strengthen the legislative framework for protecting sport from these threats. We also think that the Bill needs to go further to meet these objectives and that includes the following measures being introduced:

· Spread betting on sport being brought within the remit of the new Licensing regulations so that all forms of betting are regulated by Gambling Commission Licence Condition 15.1

· A specific offence of match-fixing to be included within the Bill that targets the actions of those who seek to corrupt matches. This would reflect recent advisory positions taken by the Independent DCMS Parry Integrity report and just recently in a report by the European Parliament.

European Union policy-making calls for Member States to address sports betting integrity and match fixing threats

 

11. In November 2012 the Council of the European Union published their Presidency conclusions on establishing a strategy to combat the manipulation of sport results at an Education, Youth, Culture, and Sport Council meeting [2] .

12. The report cites the importance of all stakeholders being vigilant about the threats from match-fixing and stresses the important lead role that Member States, through subsidiarity, need to undertake.

13. As the UK has one of the largest and most liberalised betting markets in the world it is particularly important to make sure the framework here is effective both for protecting sport and also to act as an illustration to other National Governments of what needs to be achieved to help fight illegal activity and corruption in sports betting.

14. SROC believes that the introduction of this new legislation, which builds on the existing Gambling Commission framework and provisions of Licence Condition 15 will give the UK one of the EU’s more effective regimes and this is to be welcomed.

The Bill’s proposals

 

15. The main proposal in the draft Bill is that all Gambling activity taking place in the UK, through UK consumers, is regulated in the UK. This is an important principle that must be enacted so that all of the other laws and regulation the Government applies to betting activity through the Gambling Commission are upheld.

16. This includes the requirement for information sharing between sports bodies, the Gambling Commission and betting companies. Bringing forward this draft Bill means the UK Government is addressing the following important sport specific recommendation from the EU Presidency Conclusions:

"As regards betting related match-fixing, ensure that national gambling regulators have the necessary expertise, resources and tools to deal with it and consider giving them a role as intermediaries between sports organisations and betting operators, e.g. in the collection of data about suspicious betting activities or patterns. In particular, ensure that gambling regulators, in cooperation with the sport movement identify sport-specific risks with regard to gambling". (Recommendation 6, page 4)

17. The Bill, when enacted, will ensure that every bet taken in the UK is subject to Licence condition 15 which makes statutory information sharing a part of the conditions for being a regulated betting operator. This is of vital importance. It is unacceptable that Sports bodies should have to rely on Memorandum of Understanding and the voluntary goodwill of betting operators just to receive information about betting on their sport.

18. SROC still seeks further reassurance and explanation from the Government and Gambling Commission as to how it will be able to enforce these new arrangements when the betting operator will still be located overseas. The Gambling Commission needs to introduce a fees regime for overseas licensing that allows it to uphold effective oversight.

19. SROC would of course be pleased to answer any further questions that the Committee might have and would request the opportunity to give evidence in person to the Committee should you decide to hold oral evidence sessions.

November 2013

 

[1] See Report on the White Paper on Sport (A6-0149/2008) M. Mavrommatis; Report on the integrity of online gambling (2008/2215) C. Schaldemose; Report on online gambling in the Internal Market (2011/2084) J. Creutzmann; Report on the European Dimension of Sport (2011/2087) S. FIsas; Report on Online gambling in the Internal Market (2012/2322) A. Fox.

[2] http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/133873.pdf

[2]

Prepared 13th November 2013