Six experts, including from the Council of Europe, will be in Latvia providing customised on-site technical expertise to the main national stakeholders in the fight against sports manipulations. This includes the Latvian ministry for education and sport, the ministry of justice, the main sports federations, the Latvian police authorities and the national betting authority and operators.
Assistance is based on information collected via earlier phases of the project (questionnaires, regional seminar, study visit, country reports) and exchanges with Latvian authorities. The visit will discuss the recent legislation criminalising sports manipulations and will culminate in a meeting of stakeholders with the view of establishing a national platform to combat the phenomenon.
Expert mission to Cyprus
4-5 May 2017, Nicosia, Cyprus
Six experts, including from the Council of Europe, will be in Cyprus providing customised on-site technical expertise to the main national stakeholders in the fight against sports manipulations. This includes the Cyprus Sports Organisation, the national betting authority, the national police, betting operators, and the ministry of justice, including the district attorney.
Assistance is based on information collected via earlier phases of the project (questionnaires, regional seminar, study visit, country reports) and exchanges with Cypriot authorities. The visit will discuss the draft legislation criminalising sports manipulations and culminate in a meeting of stakeholders with the view of establishing a national platform to combat the phenomenon. It coincided with Cyprus signing the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions on 4 May 2017 in Strasbourg.
Fourth Study Visit
7-9 March 2017, Birmingham, United Kingdom
This visit was the fourth and last study visit in the project calendar. Azerbaijan, Latvia and Georgia were selected from among the candidate countries and key stakeholders from each of these countries (LEA, ministries of sport and justice, betting regulatory authorities) visited the UK National Platform in order to experience in-depth an example of a national platform under the CoE convention. They were also able to exchange with each other (nationally and transnationally) and this was a first opportunity for many not only to meet different country 'homologues' but also the relevant actors within the same country. This follows on from the regional seminars from earlier in the project. There was also a meeting with the operational platform,the Sports Betting Integrity Forum, at which the activities of the Council of Europe Conventions Unit were presented and more synergies were created.
Third Study Visit
17-18 January 2017, Paris, France
The European Union and Council of Europe Joint Project “Keep Crime Out Of Sport” organised a third study visit in Paris, France, on 17 and 18 January 2017. The three selected countries (Cyprus, Hungary and Poland) had participated in regional seminars. They visited the French national platform and learned about the measures implemented nationally to combat match-fixing, in particular within betting and with relation to criminal procedures. They were also exposed to real-time action, with the National Platform's actions during the Handball World Championship which took place in France at that time. Before the visit, the countries produced assessment reports which allowed the CoE secretariat and the French NP to customise the event.
Second Study Visit
13-15 December 2016, Birmingham, United Kingdom
The European Union and Council of Europe Joint Project “Keep Crime Out Of Sport” organised a study visit of the United Kingdom National Platform, in collaboration with the Gambling Commission on 13, 14 and 15 December 2016. This was the second study visit out of four planned for the project. The participants from the three participating countries (Albania, Belgium and Ukraine) were selected from among applicants who participated at regional seminars (earlier phase of the project). Before the visit, the countries prepared assessment reports of the national situation. In Birmingham they were presented with a model national platform for combating match-fixing and visited the headquarters of the UK National Platform, as well as betting operator sites and the Sports Betting Integrity Forum. They were also exposed to criminal aspects and investigations of combating sports manipulations.
First Study visit
14-15 November 2016, Paris, France
Following the 5 regional seminars, which welcomed 24 EU Member States and a total of 32 CoE Member States, the European Union and Council of Europe Joint Project “Keep Crime Out Of Sport” organised a study visit of the French National Platform, in collaboration with the French Online Gambling Regulatory Authority (ARJEL) on 14 and15 November 2016. Four countries having participated in the regional seminars (Germany, The Netherlands, Lithuania and Switzerland) attended the study visit where they experienced and learned first-hand about how the national platform is set up and other measures related to combating sports manipulations. They also received assistance based on their country assessment reports that were produced prior to the visit.
Fifth Regional Seminar
8-9 November 2016, Athens, Greece
The Seminar reunited stakeholders from ministries, law enforcement, the sport movement, betting regulatory authorities and operators from Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and the Slovak Republic in order to tackle challenges presented prior to the seminar and to discuss operational methods to fight match-fixing and illegal betting via legislation and action nationally and regionally.
Fourth Regional Seminar
25-26 October 2016, Bucharest, Romania
The Seminar reunited stakeholders from ministries, law enforcement, the sport movement, betting regulatory authorities and operators from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ireland, Moldova, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic in order to tackle challenges presented prior to the seminar and to discuss operational methods to fight match-fixing and illegal betting via legislation and action nationally and regionally.
Third Regional Seminar
4-5 October 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Seminar reunited stakeholders from ministries, law enforcement, the sport movement, betting regulatory authorities and operators from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden in order to tackle challenges presented prior to the seminar and to discuss operational methods to fight match-fixing and illegal betting via legislation and action nationally and regionally.
Second Regional Seminar
27-28 September 2016, Zagreb, Croatia
The Seminar reunited stakeholders from ministries, law enforcement, the sport movement, betting regulatory authorities and operators from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and Ukraine in order to tackle challenges presented prior to the seminar and to discuss operational methods to fight match-fixing and illegal betting via legislation and action nationally and regionally.
First Regional Seminar
20-21 June 2016, The Hague, The Netherlands
The Seminar reunited stakeholders from ministries, law enforcement, the sport movement, betting regulatory authorities and operators from Albania, Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom in order to tackle challenges presented prior to the seminar and to discuss operational methods to fight match-fixing and illegal betting via legislation and action nationally and regionally.
European Parliament Debate the issue of Match-fixing
The debate involved the Sport Intergroup of the EP and was opened by MEPs, Santiago Fisas Ayxelá MEP and Bogdan Wenta MEP.
Two panels were run which saw the presence of four KCOOS project partners. The first panel looked at the role of public authorities, on which sat notably, the Secretary for the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention, Mikhaël de Thyse, along with Yves Le Lostècque, head of the European Commission sport unit and representatives from the Malta Gaming Authority and from two KCOOS project partners, the French Betting and Regulatory Authority (ARJEL) and the UK Gambing Commission. The second panel on relationships between sport and the betting industry saw speeches from representatives of EU Athletes, Sports Rights Owners Coalition and two of KCOOS partner organisations, namely European Lotteries and ESSA
The debate was closed by MEP Marc Tarabella.
EC Conference on Match Fixing
17-18 February 2016, Brussels, Belgium
The two-day conference, jointly organised by DG HOME (Migration and Home Affairs), DG EAC (Education and Culture) and DG GROWTH (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, SMEs) of the European Commission, focused on the four match-fixing projects co-funded by DG HOME, including KCOOS. The project was presented, after which discussion around the general topic took place.
Kick-off meeting
9-10 February 2016, Brussels, Belgium
The KEEP CRIME OUT OF SPORT (KCOOS) kick-off meeting of project partners took place on 9 and 10 February 2016 in the Brussels office of the Council of Europe, and closed with an inauguration event. The kick-off meeting saw project partners working on the content and organisation of activities that will take place over the duration of the project. The inauguration welcomed notable speakers, including Ambassador Torbjørn Froysnes, Head of the Council of Europe Office to the EU, Yves Le Lostècque, Head of the Sports Unit of the European Commission, Bart Ooijen, Head of the Sports Working Group of the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU, and Michael Trinker, Deputy Executive Secretary of the EPAS Secretariat of the Council of Europe.
KCOOS promotion on Radio RAI morning programme, "Manuale d'Europa"
28 January 2016
Giuseppe Zaffuto, from the communications team of the Council of Europe, presented project KCOOS on a popular morning show on European affairs on Radio RAI, Italy’s premier radio channel.
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Side Event
25 January 2016, Strasbourg
On 25 January 2016, the Council of Europe’s Sport Division organised a promotional event on the danger of the match fixing phenomenon and promoted the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Conventions as well as the KCOOS project.
On 21 January 2016 the Council of Europe and the European Union marked the start of a three-fold joint co-operation, launching three new joint projects in the field of sport. The projects are all co-funded by both institutions and will be implemented by the Council of Europe.
A buffet lunch-launch took place at the Council of Europe premises to launch the three projects, two of which were the subject of a Direct Grant Agreement with the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme and the third project (KCOOS) was awarded following a successful bid to a call for proposals by DG HOME (European Commission) on “New integrated mechanisms for cooperation between public and private actors to identify sports betting risks”.
Closing event
Match-fixing, a threat to sport?
Telephone: + 33 (0)3 90 21 62 17
Email: Cassandra Fernandes