FIFA Eyes Online Gambling Ahead of World Cup - 10-13-09

October 13 - The FIFA World Cup promises to be a true soccer extravaganza when it kicks off in South Africa next year.

But while FIFA is hoping that sportsmanship, fair play and exciting soccer action will be the focus of the World Cup, the organization cannot ignore the fact that some games may have the potential to be targeted by shady groups hoping to influence the outcome by match fixing.

FIFA has commissioned Early Warning System, a gambling surveillance group to keep an eye on internet betting sites and report any suspicious betting patterns.

EWS started off as a small project but has now expanded to incorporate club competitions and programs for FIFA member groups.

Ahead of the World Cup, FIFA has asked EWS to monitor international qualifying matches, with emphasis on what they consider 'lesser' games.

"We can say with confidence that we have seen no evidence of suspicious betting patterns going on in any of these international matches," said the Head of Competition Analysis for Early Warning System, Detlev Zenglein.

"But just because we have not found any evidence, that does not of course mean that no illegal activity has taken place," he continued. "When it comes to comparisons with other areas of sporting corruption, such as in the fight against anti doping, we are at an early stage. If you take a 100 m race as an analogy for how far we have come, then I would say we have only recently heard the starter's pistol."

Currently, 400 sports betting groups have signed a contract to report any suspicious betting patterns to FIFA.

EWS was also active in monitoring betting patterns at sports sites accepting wagers for the Beijing Olympics.

Submit This Article To Your Social Network
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb	OnlyWire
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
StumbleUpon	Redit	Technocrati