With scandalous headlines of “match fixing” this year, ranging from the UFC to the National Basketball Association (NBA), it was no wonder that the panel on sport betting integrity at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) was standing room only.
Along with the crowd of gaming operators were dozens of regulators and more journalists than normal, including at least one national reporter from ESPN.
Louis Rogacki, an assistant attorney general from New Jersey, began with a statement that all five panelists echoed, “Patrons need to have confidence in the system.”
Rogacki also brought up another common theme that all the responsible agencies need to work closely together to bolster that confidence.
Sarah Brennan, vice president of compliance with BetMGM, said, “No stakeholder has visibility over all elements and we can’t do it alone.” She said it takes a combination of efforts from everyone.
“Our role is not to monitor match fixing,” Brennan said Tuesday. “Our role is to take that information and tie into law enforcement to get the information where it needs to go.”
One of those who does monitor match fixing is Chris Dougan, chief government affairs officer at Genius Sports. “Education is fundamental to the environment,” he said. “We look at teams, players, and anyone who touches the game.”
For example, Dougan said his firm holds education sessions with every player of the Professional Golf Association (PGA) every year to ensure that they are aware of all the issues related to sport betting.
Given the time of the year, it was appropriate that the fourth member of the panel was from the National Football League (NFL). Keith Perschetz, the NFL’s director of global sports betting, explained that along with coaches and officials, some 2,000 players are also being educated annually about gambling.
“That goes twice for rookies,” Perschetz said. “Their classes are taught by veteran players that the rookies respect.”
The panel also noted an increase in harassment by gamblers of players, coaches, and officials.
“We’ve seen an uptick in harassment of players coaches and officials,” Perschetz said. “There is no place in the game for harassment.”
He and the others argued that there should be permanent bans for those who are caught threatening others. Perschetz and his fellow panelists all agreed and cited local examples where teams or venues had issued bans.
But the group urged these bans to be coordinated nationwide and to be made permanent. Rogacki said the industry should consider placing sports betting offenders to be placed in the same category as casino cheats.
“They should be put on exclusion lists,” Rogacki said. Those listed would be like the infamous List of Excluded Persons in Nevada, also known as the “Black Book.”
Dugan concluded that sports betting integrity is a global issue from the English Premiere League to the NFL and that technology will be a key in the future for regulators and operators to monitor activity that ranges from money laundering and suspicious betting patterns to threats and intimidation of players and coaches.
Rogacki said that the solution that many have suggested, eliminating “micro betting” or “in-game betting,” is not really a solution. Like others, he again emphasized that the best way forward is coordination and education.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the room seemed convinced that things are improving. One regulator leaving the room was heard saying, “Sports betting integrity is an oxymoron.”
