France establish anti-sports corruption platform

French online regulator ARJEL has established a national platform in the fight against match fixing and corruption in Sports.

The development of the platform directly correlates to ARJEL’s signing of the European Council’s International Convention against manipulation in sports in 2014 which is only expected to enter into force once consensus has been reached with other European Union-Member States.

The development of a National platform is one of the central requirements which ARJEL has decided to implement prior to ratification of the Convention, becoming one of the first EU countries to do so.

The platform, under the chairmanship of the Minister for Sport, consists of representatives from the Ministries of Justice, Interior, Finance, Sports, ARJEL, la société la Française des Jeux, the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) and professional sports associations.

In a two-pronged approach, the Director of Sport will chair an entity that coordinates training, prevention and detection of manipulation of sports competitions while ARJEL will undertake sports betting surveillance and training.

The two teams will meet at least once a year in a plenary session under the chairmanship of the Minister of Sports to provide feedback and progress.