Mariana Chamelette, attorney at the São Paulo Court of Sports Justice for Football, points out that few government resources are currently dedicated to combating this problem, despite efforts by the FPF and CBF.
The Goiás Public Prosecutor's Office (MPGO) launched this Tuesday (18) another stage of the operation “Maximum Penalty”, which fulfills three preventive arrest warrants against those involved in the manipulation of results of football matches.
The new suspect is that a group has participated in matches of the Brazilian Série A and in five state championships. That same action began in February of this year and culminated in the denunciation of 14 people, including eight football players, all from Série B.
What is the investigation?
According to the investigation, the co-opted athletes received between R$ 50,000 (US$ 10,000) and R$ 100,000 (US$ 20,000) for carrying out certain actions during the game, such as taking a card or committing a penalty. It was also identified that this same criminal organization acted "concretely" in at least five games of the Brazilian Série A 2022.
According to the MPGO, the suspects would have tried to manipulate five state championship games, including Campeonato Paulista, Gaúcho, Goianiense and Mato-Grossense.
Mariana Chamelette, who is a prosecutor at the Court of Sports Justice for Football in São Paulo, specialist in sports law, compliance and integrity in sport, and vice president of the Brazilian Institute of Sports Law, addresses some points and sees the need to create a national entity centralized in combating match-fixing.
Combating manipulation
"To combat match-fixing, it is essential to understand this phenomenon and to act in an integrated manner. That is why I see the creation of a centralized national entity as the only point of contact in matters related to match-fixing, as opportune, in order to simplify the exchange of data related to sports betting, including at a transnational level, and effectively connect sports administration and practice entities, betting operators and government law enforcement agencies [police and public prosecutors]", she states.
According to her, a national authority focused on sports integrity would have the potential to simplify the exchange of data and the routing of information to government law enforcement agencies and national sports entities.
"It would also make it possible to create a unified regulation of guidelines related to the prevention of match fixing to be followed by all organizers of sports competitions available in the betting market, as well as disseminating important information, carrying out preventive campaigns and promoting the training of all those involved in sports – and why not? –, increase the resources used in the fight against fraud," she explains.
Chamelette adds that government resources for this fight are still small. "Despite the great efforts of some sports administration entities such as the Paulista Football Federation and the CBF itself, only few government resources are currently dedicated to combating match-fixing in Brazilian football. But, considering the current scenario, it is believed the time has come for private and government entities to begin to undertake joint efforts on an adequate and more sophisticated approach."
“Bookmakers are the most affected by fraud scandals," says CEO of Esportes da Sorte Darwin Filho, one of the sports betting houses that grew the most between 2022 and 2023, who welcomes the performance of the Public Ministry of Goiás to investigate a group specialized in defrauding the results of Serie B matches of the Brazilian Championship, with the objective of influencing bets of millionaire values.
Darwin Filho understands that these scandals are extremely harmful to platforms considered serious in operation in the country. "The bookmakers are the main victims of the manipulation of results, after all, all the profitability of this crime is raised through bets on the sites that offer the modality in Brazil," he says.
According to the executive, some measures have already been taken to prevent these events from happening. "I see advances in terms of fluidity of communication between bookmakers and state federations, in order to facilitate the exchange of information about incompatible movements in certain games. This information allows the federations to carry out internal diligences in order to verify possible fraud," he points out.
In any case, Darwin Filho makes it clear that the acceleration in the regulation of this market will also be a fundamental tool to curb future fraud.
"Although better than before, we are still far from the ideal scenario, since there are no rules for passing on this type of information, and everything works based on the cooperation and good faith of serious operators. Without a doubt, the regulation would establish certain demands and would make this exchange of information mandatory. In this way, together with the federations and the public authorities, we would be able to help even more to combat this type of crime," he concludes.
Hans Schleier, marketing director at Casa de Apostas, understands that the issue needs to get off the ground soon, as long as there is an understanding of all parties involved. "The regulation will bring security to companies and bettors, since entities and companies are enabled to share data to detect suspicious behavior. It will also help to make relations with clubs, entities, companies and bettors themselves more transparent," he said.
Source: GMB
