The International Betting Integrity Association – IBIA – together with the Colombian Federation of Gambling Entrepreneurs – FECOLJUEGOS recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of joining forces to establish projects and initiatives to combat fraud related to sports betting in Colombia and to protect the integrity of sports and sports betting companies.
IBIA is the world’s leading voice on integrity for the licensed sports betting industry with its integrity monitoring system covering over $137 billion in betting transactions per year worldwide.
Data from IBIA and its members have played a significant role in supporting investigations, prosecutions and sanctions of the parties involved in match fixing, mitigating and preventing the possibilities of this type of irregular practice.
IBIA has been essential to the integrity of gambling
In 2021, suspicious betting activities reported by IBIA to relevant authorities helped to issue sporting or criminal sanctions against 11 teams or players.
IBIA reported 121 alerts to relevant authorities in Latin America between 2017 and 2021, with a total of 9 alerts about suspicious games taking place in Colombia – 8 concerning tennis and 1 football.
According to the latest figures from leading market intelligence firm Gambling Capital, total gross gambling wins in 2021 in Latin America were worth US$1.9 billion in 2021, with projections showing that it should rise to US$1.9 billion. 3.5 billion in 2026.
In Colombia, gross profit from betting is estimated at US$808 million in 2021 and is expected to increase to US$1.1 billion in 2026.
An important partnership for the Colombian betting industry
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “We are happy to collaborate with Fecoljuegos on common projects in the fight against ‘matching results’. The creation of the Colombian National Committee for the prevention of manipulation of sports competitions is the first of its kind in the Latin America region”
“Fecoljuegos played an important role in its launch and we fully support the call for integrity provisions to be included in gambling legislation,” added Khalid Ali.
For his part, Evert Montero Cárdenas, president of Fecoljuegos, considers that this is an important step for the sector in Colombia, which reaffirms the industry’s commitment in this matter:
“With great anticipation we received this memorandum that establishes an agreement of wills, we believe that this is an important step to protect the activity from irregular practices that have affected it for years”.
“The partnership with IBIA is certainly something that guarantees higher standards of integrity, which represents an advantage for the country’s legal industry”, concluded Cárdenas.
