The Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) has entered into a collaborative Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), in the interests protecting and maintaining the integrity of sports and sports betting.
The aim of this MoU is to cooperate in order to avoid the manipulation of sports events and competitions, whereby the LGA in collaboration with its licensed operators shall assist ESSA in its reporting relationships with other international sporting associations.
In practice, ESSA, on the one hand, and LGA and its licensed betting operators, on the other, will cooperate to exchange betting-related information to assist the investigation of irregular betting patterns or insider betting connected with sporting events and competitions.
Dr Gayle Kimberley, LGA’s Manager Legal (EU and International Affairs) stated that this agreement is one of a series of agreements that the LGA is entering into on sports integrity, as this is an important subject of high priority to the Authority. Dr Kimberley believes such collaboration initiatives will demonstrate that match-fixing through sport betting does not find fertile ground in thoroughly regulated jurisdictions such as Malta’s.
Mr Khalid Ali, the Secretary General of ESSA said “it’s in all our interests to defeat betting related match-fixing. By signing an MoU with the LGA in Malta we have a direct link with the Regulator to report any suspicious betting patterns thereby developing a robust eco-system to protect the interests of consumers, sport and the betting operators.”