The Spanish gambling regulator, DGOJ, has made a commitment to sports integrity by joining with the Spanish Professional Footballers Association (AFE) to tackle the issue of match fixing.
Additionally, the agency will develop a new ‘athlete first’ collaborative framework with the help of the AFE to eradicate the risks of match fixing and illegal wagers across Spanish football leagues.
A statement released by the DGOJ read: “Both organisations agree that the manipulation of sports competition and betting fraud undermines the interests of participants and operators in the sector, and constitutes one of the greatest threats to professional football.
Meanwhile, the AFE highlighted its concerns that syndicated players needed to be better informed on the career threatening consequences of being involved in match fixing and betting manipulations.
As a result, there will be ‘shared protocols between both organisations’ in place, focused on criminal prevention by educating players, clubs and further officials on the risks of illegal betting on football.
The DGOJ has prepared new informative materials and awareness campaigns for AFE athletes that will be made available through the organisation’s digital platforms ‘as well as within the changing rooms themselves’ for players to see.
The AFE partnership forms part of the DGOJ’s ongoing regulatory strategy of expanding its support network with key social stakeholders to strengthen its oversight on gambling related risks, to market integrity, operator conduct, harm reduction and the treatment and prevention of gambling harms.
