Illegal gambling in sport: The trillion‐dollar question no one understands
Illegal sports gambling represents a global value of 1.7 trillion US dollars per year. The market is largely unregulated and can be linked to crimes from fraud to extortion, people trafficking, slavery, and even murder.
This theme page collects articles, presentations, and other resources to help you understand the significant threats to sport raised by illegal gambling practices.
Below, you can find
- Research conducted for Play the Game, which highlights the role of Western agents and companies in enabling the activities of Asian-facing illegal sports betting operators linked to scam compounds and cyber slavery
- a special investigation made for Play the Game by a group of investigative journalists on the links between football and the criminal dimensions of unregulated sports gambling
- videos from presentations at Play the Game 2024 on illegal gambling and sport
- research on the dark side of sports betting in Africa
Not just an Asian problem: Western enablers sustain illegal betting networks
In a series of articles, investigative journalist Philippe Auclair presents findings from his research for Play the Game on the middleman system that enables the activities of Asian-facing illegal sports betting operators linked to scam compounds and cyber slavery.
His articles map
- how the jurisdictions issuing licenses to illegal betting operators have moved from places like Curaçao, the Isle of Man, and the Philippines to small nations and areas like Anjouan in Comoros, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and Equatorial Guinea
- how these jurisdictions do not benefit significantly from being home to offshore licensing companies, as they are generally run by Westerns
- a long list of intermediaries which link betting operators with football clubs and leagues by providing live data, financial acces, and marketing services.
Read the investigation
The relationship between football and illegal sports gambling
Working with a group of investigative journalists, Play the Game has sought to open up the impenetrable world of illegal sports gambling to non-experts through an exposé of football's lucrative pact with Asian-facing betting operators.
Through six articles, journalists Philippe Auclair, Andy Brown, Jack Kerr, Steve Menary and Samindra Kunti show the little-known dynamics of the illegal betting market.
The articles
- provide a general introduction to the landscape of sports gambling
- show how illegal gambling platforms are ubiquitous in football
- show how marketing agencies, data collection agencies and others enable illegal gambling to function
- explain how regulators of football and the betting industry are ill-equipped to meet the challenges and often fail to deliver any oversight of the industries concerned
- show how illegal sports gambling is not a victimless crime and can be linked to crimes from fraud to extortion, people trafficking, slavery, and even murder
Read the six-part investigation
Mapping the territory of football's lucrative pact with illegal sports gambling
Introducing the sports betting data supply chain and the predatory integrity industry
Meet the hydras: tracing the illegal gambling operators that sponsor football
Key presentations on illegal gambling from Play the Game 2024
Illegal gambling in sport was an important theme at Play the Game 2024. Below, you can watch all presentations from a session titled 'Illegal gambling in sport: The trillion‐dollar question that no one seems to grasp'.
Videos include individual presentations as well as the final panel discussion:
- Frédéric van Leeuw, federal prosecutor in the Belgian Ministry of Public Affairs:
The catastrophic impact of normalising corruption in sport
Read the full speech by Frédéric van Leeuw - Zoe Flood, journalist and filmmaker:
The explosion of sports betting across Africa and the potential for risk to fans in lightly regulated markets - Ann Lukowiak, Federal prosecutor at the Federal Prosecution Office Belgium:
Tackling Maestro: Unravelling a network of match‐fixers - Corentin Segalen, chair of the Group of Copenhagen (Council of Europe’s network of national platforms):
Understanding organized crime tactics to improve the fight against sports competition manipulation - Philippe Auclair, investigative reporter:
How sports betting has made elite football complicit with criminal activity and human rights abuse
You can select the individual presentations by pressing the down arrow in the top left-hand corner of the video.
Gamblers Like Me: The Dark Side of Sports Betting
At the 2024 conference, journalist and filmmaker Zoe Flood gave an insight into the explosion of sports betting in Africa and the work behind her BBC documentary 'Gamblers Like Me: The Dark Side of Sports Betting'.
Read the article 'Betting is a growing problem among the young populations in Africa'
You can watch her documentary here.
