EU Athletes & European betting industry launch educational campaign to support integrity in sports

17.04.2010, Brussels, 15 April, 2010: The European betting industry has joined forces with EU Athletes to launch an educational campaign aimed at helping professional sportspeople better understand and deal with issues surrounding the integrity of sport and betting.

The new education campaign for athletes will consist of a code of conduct, jointly developed by EU Athletes, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), and be supported by face-to-face presentations and online resources dedicated to providing ongoing support.

“Education for players is an essential component in protecting and promoting sporting integrity. This new pilot programme will develop best practice in player education on sports betting issues across Europe" says Walter Palmer, Secretary General of EU Athletes.

“We are delighted that the EGBA and ESSA have agreed to work with the player associations from across Europe to develop player education on sports betting integrity issues. In taking the initiative both EGBA and ESSA have set an excellent example of corporate responsibility”, says Palmer.

“Licensed betting operators have a vested interest in helping sports maintain the highest levels of integrity. We also understand that athletes need to be educated to avoid situations that could raise suspicion or even trigger corruption. We believe this code and educational campaign are a very important first step towards preventing these situations, and we look forward to working with the EU Athletes and ESSA in implementing it ” commented Sigrid Ligné, Secretary General, EGBA.

“We are delighted to be able to work with EU Athletes to educate sports people about the role they need to play in upholding integrity in sports, just as we work with our own members to ensure they employ the very latest security procedures so that, when illegal betting does occur, we know about it in real time,” says Khalid Ali, Secretary General of ESSA.

The code of conduct provides the foundation for the education programme. The campaign will provide concrete advice on how to avoid or address specific risk situations that can be faced by sports professionals. This will be rolled out by the EU Athletes via its member player association and will initially target a number of high profile sports including cycling, handball and basketball in France, Germany and Spain. - END -

Notes to the editor

The code of Conduct on Sports Betting for Players is available at the following websites: http://www.euathletes.info/ http://www.eu-ssa.org http://www.egba.eu

About EU Athletes

The European Elite Athletes Association is a federation of independent athletes associations from all over Europe with member associations from 15 European countries representing over 25,000 professional athletes. Among the sports represented are basketball, cricket, Gaelic sports, handball, ice hockey, rugby and volleyball. EU athletes has member associations in for example Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and Sweden.

For more information, please visit http://www.euathletes.info/ or call General Secretary Walter Palmer at +49 951 2413679

About ESSA

The European Sports Security Association (ESSA) was established in 2005 by the leading online sports book operators in Europe to monitor any irregular betting patterns or possible insider betting from within each sport. To achieve this goal ESSA implemented an early warning system between its members that highlights any suspicious betting activity. The Early Warning System allows ESSA to work with the sports regulators and their disciplinary and legal department, ensuring that when an alert is given the regulator is informed immediately which may prevent the possibility of any game manipulation on a given event. So far, ESSA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FIFA, UEFA, EPFL, The FA, DFB, ATP , ITF, WTA and has established close relations with the IOC and many other sports regulators. ESSA members include: Betclic; Bet-at- Home; Boylesport; Bwin; Digibet; Expekt; Goldbet; Interwetten; PartyGaming; Sportingbet; StanJames; Stanleybet and Unibet.

For more information on ESSA please go to the ESSA website http://www.eu-ssa.org or contact Khalid Ali, Secretary General at +32 2256 7565

Über Sportwetten News:

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