BDO Announces Review of Betting Rules

Following on from its signature last year of the DCMS sponsored Code of Practice on Integrity in Sports Betting, and in preparation for the coming into force later this year of the Gambling Act, which will liberalise the UK gambling market and so further encourage the upward trend in betting on sports such as darts, the BDO has today announced that it has instituted a root-and-branch review of its rules and regulations.

This has been done to ensure that the BDO follows best practice in relation to activities such as betting and the use of inside information by darts players.

It is a decision that reflects the commitment of the BDO, as the sport’s governing body, to do everything in its power to protect the integrity of the sport in the face of this increasing betting activity.

BDO Chairman, Dave Alderman, said: “The DCMS recognised last year that the liberalising effect of the Gambling Act would increase the risk of corrupt betting practices in relation to sports events, where gambling activity is already significant.

The DCMS also recognised that sports bodies would have a key role in keeping sport fair and crime-free in the face of those risks.

The BDO is committed to playing its part in full, by ensuring that darts players participating in its events avoid any form of conduct that could undermine public confidence in the integrity of those events.

The root-and-branch review announced today will ensure that our rules and regulations reflect best practice in this area.

We look forward to engaging with the Gambling Commission on this and related topics when they publish their forthcoming Issues Paper relating to gambling and the sports sector.”

He also called upon the government to play its part in preserving the integrity of sport against corrupt betting practices, in two principal ways: (1) by requiring licensed gambling operators to share information about betting activity around sports events with the relevant sports bodies, such as the BDO; and (2) more fundamentally, by assisting in the creation of a mechanism to secure fair payment for betting companies’ use of the sporting product, to assist in financing both integrity efforts and the development of the sport more generally.

Alderman added: “The betting industry makes huge profits from sports betting, and it is only fair that it should pay something in return, particularly when sports bodies have to commit substantial resources to ensure that betting activity does not threaten the integrity of the sport.

At several meetings with representatives of the Gambling Commission, we have stood with our counterparts at other sports bodies such as the FA, the LTA and the RFU in asking the Gambling Commission to ensure that these important issues are addressed within the new regulatory framework, and we are hopeful that that message has been heard and understood.”

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