Britain fears Indian fixers at Olympics
Britain is worried that the Olympic Games in London this summer will face a massive threat to their credibility from attempted match-fixing and spot-fixing of sporting events by illegal betting syndicates in the Indian subcontinent and the Far East.
The UK government has, for the first time in Olympic history, decided to set up a dedicated police intelligence unit at the London 2012 Games to identify illegal betting practices and attempts to fix sporting events, especially by bribing referees or sportspersons, the Sunday Times reported.
The unit will be headed by the Metropolitan police and work with the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency and Interpol to track suspicious gambling activity abroad. In addition, the IOC has created a unit, called International Sports Monitoring, to track the worldwide betting market for unduly large wagers on particular events or competitors.
Illegal betting syndicates, largely in the Indian subcontinent and Far East, are expected to bet billions on the Olympic Games.
Britain will also warn all Olympic sportspersons and officials about the possibility of approaches by match- or spot-fixers. British Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said match-fixing has overtaken doping as the biggest threat to the reputation of the London Games. “You cannot underestimate the threat this poses because the moment that spectators start to feel that what they are seeing is not a true contest, that is when spectators stop turning up and the whole thing turns to pieces,” Mr Robertson said, adding that spot-fixing was an even bigger threat.
He criticised the betting laws and regulation of betting in the Indian subcontinent, where betting is illegal, unlike in the UK. The Western betting authorities were “well set up” to spot illegal betting activities, he said. “If you look at the most high-profile incident — the Pakistani cricketers at Lord’s — the issue is not of betting syndicates in this part of the world. It is illegal betting syndicates in the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere, where huge sums of money change hands,” he said.
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