The Spanish government has passed legislation creating a National Commission to Combat Manipulation of Sports Competitions and Betting Fraud. The new body will be overseen by Spain’s Ministries of Finance; Interior; and Culture and Sport and will feature representatives from Spain’s Directorate General for the Organisation of Gambling (DGOJ), the National Police, the Guardia Civil, the National Sports Council (CSD) and industry representatives. The creation of the new body follows a public consultation launched in December last year.

The new body will also be responsible for the development of a system of suspicious betting alerts, dubbed an ‘early warning system’ by the DGOJ. The system aims to serve as a means of communicating and sharing information and transferring knowledge about betting markets regarding fraudulent activities, which can be passed on to gambling companies, sporting federations and organisers of sporting competitions.