ESSA targets global focus with relaunch and rebrand

Sports betting integrity body ESSA has relaunched as the International Betting Integrity Association, aiming to have a more global focus in tackling match-fixing in sport.

The operator-led association currently has 50 members including bet365 and GVC, and has information-sharing partnerships with several international regulators.

Khalid Ali, secretary general of the International Betting Integrity Association, said the sport integrity debate was a global one and that the association’s strategic focus “must evolve in line with that”.

“The new name communicates who we are, what we do and where we want to be. The association has been active across six continents in recent years, with almost half of our alerts coming from outside of Europe,” Ali added.

We are pleased to announce the International Betting Integrity Association, which replaces ESSA from today. #betting #sportsbetting #matchfixing #integrity #leadingonintegrity #gambling #international pic.twitter.com/Mg0Ikv8gfw

— International Betting Integrity Association (@IBIA_bet) June 4, 2019

Releasing its monitoring data for the first quarter of 2019, ESSA confirmed it had received 37 suspicious alerts on eight different sports from four different continents, which were reported to the relevant authorities for further investigation.

This number is down 55% on Q4 2018, when 83 alerts were reported and a reduction of 26% when compared to Q1 2018.

Jon Russell, non-executive chair of the association’s board and head of global trading at Betway, said integrity had become a key regulatory issue in sports betting, citing licensing rules in certain jurisdictions which require membership of monitoring and integrity associations.

Russell added: “Betting and integrity are now inseparable and I encourage all responsible operators to join us and take advantage of the multifaceted business benefits membership brings.”