IBIA slams “unjustified and incoherent” German sports betting restrictions
Integrity association dismisses links between in-play betting and addiction
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has attacked the proposed German Interstate Treaty on gambling for imposing restrictions on stake limits and in-play betting.
In a five-page response document to the European Commission (EC), which was submitted as part of the EC review into the new IST, the IBIA claimed that proposals to restrict maximum stakes to €1,000 a month is an “arbitrary and unevidenced” restriction.
Qualifying its statement, the IBIA claimed any restriction on stakes will not decrease levels of gambling addiction arising from sports betting. The IBIA cited the example of the UK and Denmark, where no such restrictions are imposed, highlighting low addiction rates from sports betting.
It said that any restrictions on the types of bets or products offered within a given market can have a “detrimental impact” on the market and the level of consumer channelization.
The IBIA also attacked the proposed continuation of a ban on in-play sports betting, dismissing German claims that in-play betting is more addictive and easier to manipulate from a match-fixing perspective.
It claimed that German regulators are pursuing an “incoherent and inconsistent” policy in banning in-play betting to combat match-fixing not actively setting out sufficiently detailed integrity protection procedures within the new IST.
“Imposing product restrictions on regulated betting operators therefore does not make it any less likely that the sporting events in that licensing jurisdiction will be any safer from betting related corruption, which can take place with a multitude of operators around the world,” the IBIA adds.
As an alternative to restrictions, the IBIA asserts that other methods, such as requiring operators to report suspicious betting, the voiding of suspicious bets and the suspension of betting markets would be more effective methods of combatting addiction and match-fixing.
The response is the second piece of negative feedback into the new German IST following the issuance of a so-called ‘blue letter’ by the European Commission earlier this week.
The letter, which was issued to the German Federal Government by EC general director Lowri Evans, claimed that restricting new licence terms to eighteen months rather than the previous seven years would inadvertently enable the growth of the German black market.