The leader of the global Olympic movement, Jacques Rogge, has called match-fixing and corruption as big a threat to sporting integrity as doping.
Unfortunately, sporting scandal and attempted crooked betting coups have all too often gone together, as recent football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have shown.
Those events, like last year's furore surrounding three Pakistan cricketers - subsequently given bans - and the bowling of "no balls" against England at Lords, were linked to illegal gambling rings.
But for legitimate betting firms, whether traditional High Street outlets or more recent online betting organisations, these events all tend to be lumped together in the public's mind under the one heading of "gambling".
"Much of what we have seen has been from the illegal Asian markets - there is a huge difference between them and ourselves," says a senior investigator at online gambling firm Betfair.
"But it is all about perceptions, and people just see the headlines about gambling without looking deeper."
It is to avoid such tarnished associations with crooked gambling rings that firms such as Betfair go to great lengths to monitor the betting patterns on its site.
'Prevent, detect, investigate'
The firm is the world's major betting exchange - a set-up that allows gamblers to bet on sporting events at odds set by other gamblers.
Betfair makes its money by taking a commission from winning bets.
The firm's headquarters overlooks the River Thames at Hammersmith, west London, and houses Betfair's corporate, technical, marketing, and user-experience teams.
Betfair employs more than 1,000 people in the UK
But arguably the most important is the integrity team of eight people, which uses computer and analytical tools to prevent criminal activity being conducted in connection with sport and gambling, and to keep criminals off the Betfair site.
Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14485648
Unfortunately, sporting scandal and attempted crooked betting coups have all too often gone together, as recent football match-fixing events in Finland and South Korea have shown.
Those events, like last year's furore surrounding three Pakistan cricketers - subsequently given bans - and the bowling of "no balls" against England at Lords, were linked to illegal gambling rings.
But for legitimate betting firms, whether traditional High Street outlets or more recent online betting organisations, these events all tend to be lumped together in the public's mind under the one heading of "gambling".
"Much of what we have seen has been from the illegal Asian markets - there is a huge difference between them and ourselves," says a senior investigator at online gambling firm Betfair.
"But it is all about perceptions, and people just see the headlines about gambling without looking deeper."
It is to avoid such tarnished associations with crooked gambling rings that firms such as Betfair go to great lengths to monitor the betting patterns on its site.
'Prevent, detect, investigate'
The firm is the world's major betting exchange - a set-up that allows gamblers to bet on sporting events at odds set by other gamblers.
Betfair makes its money by taking a commission from winning bets.
The firm's headquarters overlooks the River Thames at Hammersmith, west London, and houses Betfair's corporate, technical, marketing, and user-experience teams.
Betfair employs more than 1,000 people in the UK
But arguably the most important is the integrity team of eight people, which uses computer and analytical tools to prevent criminal activity being conducted in connection with sport and gambling, and to keep criminals off the Betfair site.
Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14485648
