Responsibility regarding match-fixing

What is match-fixing?

Match-fixing means an intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sports competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sports competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others.

Accordingly, the following criteria must be present to meet the definition of match-fixing: 

• An improper alternation of the result or the course of a sports competition. 
• All or part of the unpredictable nature that is normally connected to the course and result of a sports competition is removed. 
• The act or omission must result in an undue advantage for oneself or for others. 

Match-fixing covers, among other things: 

• Intentional arrangements of the result of sports competitions prior to the event, e.g. one of the teams loses in purpose or end in a draw. 
• Influencing specific acts during the course of the competition, without necessarily influencing the final result of the competition, for example the number of corner kicks, penalty kicks, free kicks, or the number of yellow or red cards (spot fixing).
• Influencing the final result but not the outcome of a sports competition, for example if players receive payment to not beat the opposing team with more than 10 goals (point shaving).
• Athletes’ deliberate underperformance, defeat or similar.
• Referees and officials’ deliberate misapplication of the rules of the competition. 
• Undue change or use of the equipment or the physical surroundings used for the sports competition in question in order to manipulate the result. 
• Bribery, threats against or participation in other forms of forcing behaviour towards a person to alter, ensure or influence a certain result of a sports competition or specific acts during the course of such competition. 
• Support staffs’ intentional influence on athletes with the purpose of making the athletes underperform 

Denmark and the match-fixing convention 

The Council of Europe established the Macolin Convention in 2014 to fight match-fixing. Denmark signed the the Convention the same year but has not ratified the Convention. 

The convention includes a number of measures to combat the risk of sports competitions being fixed. 

The Ministry of Culture is overall responsible for establishing the framework for the combat of match-fixing in Denmark, and although the convention has not entered into force, a number of requirements and arrangements has been implemented with reference to it. For example: 

• Match-fixing is independently criminalised, cf. section 10 b of Act on promoting integrity in sport. 
• A national platform has been established with a secretariat at Anti Doping Danmark. 

The Danish Gambling Authority is a member of the national platform 

The Danish Gambling Authority is a member of “Den nationale platform” (the national platform), which is a forum for cooperation in Denmark coordinating the joint effort to combat match-fixing. In addition to the Danish Gambling Authority, the national platform is comprised of Anti Doping Danmark (Sectretariat), the Ministry of Culture, the Public Prosecution Office, the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime (SØIK), Danish Online Gambling Association (DOGA), Danske Licens Spil A/S, the Danish Football Association (DBU) and the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF). 

What obligations do licence holders have?

Prohibition against offering bets on sports competitions reserved for young people under 18

Betting on sports competitions reserved for young people under 18 cannot be offered. 

This group of people is assessed to compose an especially vulnerable group and the risk connected to these competitions are considered particularly great. This means that bets cannot be offered on U-17 sports competitions. 

For more information, please see section 27 of the Executive Order on Online Betting and section 10 of the Executive Order on Land-based Betting. 

Obligation to take appropriate action 

Licence holders must have measure implemented to properly reduce the risk of match-fixing. 

It is not defined what exactly consitutes an appropriate measure, but it must be a framework that allows the licence holder to identify suspicious transactions and behaviour. Likewise, it must be possible for the licence holder to follow various announcements from the established national platforms and the Danish Gambling Authority in such a way that the licence holder is able to respond to this. 

Today, there are a number of networks which purpose is to monitor sports competitions to detect signs of match-fixing. 

Obligation to refuse to accept a stake 

The licence holder is obligated to refuse to accept a stake if a suspicion of match-fixing is present, for example of the licence holder receives notification thereof, or its own measures raise a suspicion. 

Please note that “refusal” can affect bets already placed. In this connection, it is recommended that the licence holder contact the National Platform for guidance on how to deal with a possible investigation of the sports competition. 

What else can you do?

Today, it is not required that the licence holder must inform the Danish Gambling Authority of a suspicion, we would like to receive information from licence holders that we can disclose to the National Platform in order to strengthen the combat of match-fixing. 

If you want to know more

Report on regulation of match-fixing (Only available in Danish)DIF's analysis of match-fixing in Danish elite sports - 2016 (Only available in Danish) The Ministry of Culture's websiteAnti Doping Danmarks's websiteThe National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF's) website Act on promoting integrity in sport (Only available in Danish)Executive Order on promoting integrity in sport (Only available in Danish)Stopmatchfixing.dk - notify of suspicions of match-fixing to Anti Doping Danmark