Betting with the Enemy: Changes in Sports' Attitude Towards Sports Betting

Match-fixing in sport has emerged as a serious and widespread global problem. However, international sports organisations have tended to adopt an ambivalent attitude towards the issue. One the one hand, they deal sternly with match-fixing itself as seen in their common 'zero-tolerance' policy. On the other hand, the sports betting industry that brings about match-fixing has now been accepted as a reliable business partner. These conflicting approaches to match-fixing and the sports betting industry frame match-fixing as a matter of individuals' morality and ethics, instead of structural aspects that drive individual players to becoming involved in match-fixing. Interestingly, this dramatic shift in sports organisations' attitude from vigilance to trust towards the sports betting industry appears to have been driven by monetary motivations. As FIFA President Sepp Blatter said, "we can't ban betting" because "we needed Toto and football to raise money for the sport". This presentation briefly discusses various measures that international sports organisations are currently adopting to tackle sports betting along with the limitations of these measures. While in the early 19th century the football association in England struggled to protect their sport and players from dangers of the betting industry, this presentation raises a question whether today international sports organisations try to protect their business partners including licensed bookmakers from non-partners such as players in danger.