The UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has launched a consultation that aims to extend the number of bodies with which the Gambling Commission can share information on suspicious betting in sport. The consultation, launched 9 November, concerns amendments to Section 6 of the Gambling Act 2005, which regulates how the Gambling Commission – which regulates gambling in Great Britain – shares information with sport. It closes on 8 December.

At present, the Commission’s Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) receives and collates information that could compromise the integrity of sport. Gambling bodies licensed by the Commission are required to share information on betting irregularities with sports governing bodies listed in Section 6, which also lists the conditions regarding the sharing of that information. The Commission can share information with bodies that are not listed under Section 6, but only under certain conditions.

In 2014, the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act came into force, which required all betting operators offering services in Great Britain to be licensed by the Gambling Commission. Prior to this, only gambling operators that were physically located in Great Britain were regulated by the Commission. The DCMS said that this regulatory change had resulted in a huge increase in the number of suspicious betting reports to the SBIU.

‘The first twelve months since the implementation of the new legislation led to an 86% increase in reports from operators to SBIU’, reads the DCMS consultation document. ‘This has included reports across a wide range of sports, many of which are not currently included in the Schedule. The SBIU has faced and continues to face a number of challenges when attempting to share information with these bodies.’

This is because of strict conditions placed on the sharing of such information, due to the risk that it could pose to the integrity of sport, if a body is not listed in Section 6. Section 30(4) of the Gambling Act 2005 only allows the sharing of information with bodies not listed in Section 6 if the sharing of such information relates to a criminal proceedings or criminal investigation. ‘This is resource intensive for both SGBs and the SBIU and can cause significant delays which can hinder the investigative process’, reads the DCMS consultation document.

In its consultation document, the DCMS proposes adding a number of new bodies to Section 6. These include:

• UK Anti-Doping;
• The Tennis Integrity Unit;
• The Darts Regulation Authority;
• The Rugby League European Federation;
• The Irish Rugby Football Union;

In January, tennis authorities denied accusations that they had failed fully investigate reports of match-fixing, after a BBC and Buzzfeed investigation alleged that they were ‘repeatedly warned’ about a group of players integrity investigators suspected. The fact that the TIU was not on Schedule 6 partly explains the difficulties that gambling regulatory authorities would have encountered in passing information on to tennis authorities.