Macolin and beyond : legal and regulatory initiatives against match manipulation

As one of the most common types of sports fraud, match manipulation constitutes a significant threat to the integrity of sport. In response to that threat, governments and sports organisations have taken various initiatives, ranging from preventive to restrictive in nature. The aim of the research is to analyse the legal and regulatory framework currently in place to tackle match manipulation in sport. The paper shows that in recent years a fair amount of activity can be observed with regard to legislative and regulatory actions. For instance, over the past decade, a number of states have chosen to criminalise match manipulation by way of specific provisions as opposed to relying on different forms of incriminations of e.g. fraud and bribery. Similarly, action can be observed regarding national and international cooperation in relation to the topic of match manipulation. At national level, the creation of multi-stakeholder platforms, so-called national platforms, can be noticed, inspired by Article 13 of the Macolin Convention. Each national platform is nearly unique in its form, as there is no specification written in the Macolin Convention regarding the platforms’ format. At an international level, cooperative initiatives have increased as well. For example, through the INTERPOL and Europol frameworks and through the creation of the Network of National Platforms (Group of Copenhagen) which brings together the coordinators of the various national platforms that were established. Last, sports organisations have increasingly updated their codes of ethics and disciplinary codes which include bases to take disciplinary action against match manipulators provided that they fall under the organisation’s jurisdiction. In addition, these organisations have worked on their various reporting mechanisms and have taken initiatives to monitor betting markets. Some issues still remain, however. For instance, because states’ criminal laws are not uniform, questions may be raised regarding coherence and visibility of these various criminal laws. Moreover, international cooperation in criminal matters may be hindered. Concerning national and international cooperation and information exchange between stakeholders, it can be observed that many of these initiatives are informal in nature and consequently mainly rely on the goodwill of the stakeholders involved