LaLiga and the fight against illegal betting begins
LaLiga Santander of the first division of Spanish football has started last weekend with the main favorites to the title: Real Madrid, At. Madrid and FC Barcelona resolving their commitments with relative ease. But with the football league sports betting begins, and with betting the threat of fraud and illegal gambling. The RFEF and the National Police have established a protocol to combat betting fraud.
The principle of collaboration between the National Police and the RFEF is a very important step in the fight against fraud in sports betting. ©Firmbee/Pixabay
LaLiga Santander begins
In recent weeks there had been a lot of speculation about how it was going to affect FC Barcelona the absence of Lionel Messi , possibly the best player in the world, who he abandoned the Blaugrana discipline after 21 years at the Catalan club. However, the team coached by Ronald Koeman recovered from Messi's departure by solving their league match against Real Sociedad de San Sebastián by 4 to 2 with a great Memphis Depay, the Dutch battering ram that will give a lot to talk about in the League.
For its part, Real Madrid also easily surpassed Alavés, 4 to 1, and Atlético de Madrid beat a leathery Celta in Balaídos by 1 to 2, a Celta that had in the boots of its star Iago Aspas the opportunity of the tie with the match almost finished. The favorites have made it clear that the fight for the title will be this year at least as evenly matched as it was last season.
But this 2021/22 campaign has brought important changes. Thanks to the Royal Decree on commercial communications it will no longer be possible to see, either in situ or through the retransmissions, the advertising of bookmakers in the stadiums and the sports equipment of the clubs. Although with the beginning of the sports season lurks another threat - manipulations and fraud in betting.
The RFEF and the National Police join forces
This is a significant agreement that it was announced at the beginning of the year but that takes on all its importance precisely at this moment; for it was, in a way, the missing agreement. We have also seen it with the principle of collaboration between FIFA and the UN and the Kieran Trippier case last year that rocked the At. Madrid, a sign of the importance of establishing safe frameworks for online betting .
Regarding the objective that the National Police and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have set for themselves consist the need for
"to control the betting markets on football matches, as well as fraudulent activities to alter the results and circumstances of the matches, in addition to preventing and combating violence in Spanish football.”
The signed agreement includes "various actions for the sake of achieving the goal” , it would have been affirmed from both organizations. For this, the National Police will have points of contact in your Citizen Security police stations and Judicial Police with the Integrity department of the RFEF, sharing all the information related to the betting markets and monitoring possible fraud and manipulations.
In this regard, the initiative is only part of the necessary global monitoring of the markets. Both the National Police and the RFEF can do little if they do not have the cooperation of IBIA , the International Betting Integrity Association, which today is the best placed body to carry out this task and its information is of great value thanks to its quarterly reports on suspicious bets. The recent agreement between IBIA and the Spanish digital gaming association , Jdigital, strengthens the illegal gambling control system.
Along with the agreement between the National Police and the RFEF, as well as the invaluable role of IBIA, a third agent in the control of manipulation and fraud in betting is the National Commission to combat the manipulation of sports competitions and betting fraud (CONFAD), a initiative of the DGOJ . Both the RFEF and the National Police, among other organizations, are part of CONFAD.
The recent bill for the promoting safe online environments it should include provisions in this regard. If online gambling is to be a safe entertainment beyond protecting the most vulnerable groups, fraud monitoring and control mechanisms are needed.
