The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) has announced that it will host a special high-level meeting with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to enhance global data-sharing for effective investigation and prosecution on match-fixing.
As one of the only sessions dedicated to discussing integrity issues in sport at the 13th crime congress, the ICSS-UNODC meeting will see some of the world’s top organisations and international experts from sport, finance, betting, law enforcement and government discuss some of the main barriers to global-data sharing, as well as identifying ways to enhance information sharing to support transnational investigation and prosecution of match-fixing cases.
Taking place on April 15 at Qatar National Convention Centre under the theme of “Taking it from the Locker Room into the Hands of Law Enforcement”, this special high-level meeting will explore three core areas - international co-operation to combat match-fixing: a new approach for data sharing, data sharing mechanisms and data to prosecution.
Involving top international experts from betting, law enforcement and sport, speakers already confirmed for the event include Yury Fedotov, UNODC executive director; Mohamed Hanzab, ICSS president; Nick Tofiluk, director of regulatory operations, Gambling Commission; Chris Eaton, ICSS executive director of sport integrity; Patrick Moulette, OECD, head of the anti-corruption division; Michael Hershman, co-founder of Transparency International and ICSS advisory board member; Robert Crepinko, Europol, head of Organised Crime Networks (operations department); Gretchen Jonker, World Economic Forum, head of anti-corruption and Illicit Financial Flows; Patrick Jay, independent betting expert, former director of trading at the Hong Kong Jockey Club; Lord Moynihan, House of Lords and author of the Governance of Sport Bill; and Simone Farina, Aston Villa FC, Academy coach and former professional footballer.
Dimitri Vlassis, officer-in-charge of the Division for Treaty Affairs and executive secretary of the 13th crime congress, said: “This special high-level meeting hosted by the ICSS and UNODC  will provide top government officials, policy-makers and criminal justice experts with an ideal opportunity to discuss and identify stronger platforms to share data and help fast-track investigations and prosecutions involving match-fixing and illegal betting.”
“As one of the only sessions at the UN Crime Congress dedicated to discussing integrity issues in sport, this meeting will be an important milestone in the fight against match-fixing and illegal betting and will hopefully lay the foundations for closer collaboration, co-operation and information-sharing between sport, law enforcement, betting and government,” said Hanzab.
“This meeting is an important first step in the fight to protect sport and will hopefully lead to more effective investigations and prosecutions against match-fixers and organised criminals that now operate in sport,” added Eaton.