Pitch invader: how the Swedish Football Association is tackling match-fixing groups

With the transition from land-based sports betting to online sports betting, the small window of opportunity which existed for organised crime groups to profit from the fixing of sports matches has grown exponentially. As this has moved forward, the workload of those groups which are working to preserve the in-built integrity of sport has also similarly tripled.

Integrity-led efforts have been bolstered by the cooperation and monitoring of many sports for suspicious bets between sports governing bodies and betting firms, something which is often achieved by middlemen like the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA). On the front line of the day-to-day fight are integrity officers like the Swedish Football Association’s (SvFF) Johan Claesson, who shares his experiences of dealing with anti-match-fixing efforts with EGR Compliance.

EGR Compliance: What do your day-to-day duties as an integrity officer involve?

Johan Claesson (JC): The  SvFF and I have two major tasks when it comes to combating match-fixing – prevention and investigation. During the season a lot of the focus in my work is on investigating suspicious matches, however I also do a lot of what we call preventive work. This includes, for example, things like educating players, coaches and referees about match-fixing and betting.

EGR Compliance: How many alleged cases of match-fixing do you investigate on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis?

JC: The amount of alleged cases has remained largely unchanged. We at the SvFF have investigated approximately 30 suspicious matches each year for the last seven years.

EGR Compliance: How has Covid-19 affected your work? Have there been more attempts to fix Swedish matches since the restart?

JC: We have been forced to change a lot of our education and information meetings from physical to digital meetings. When it comes to the number of suspicious matches during 2020, we are awaiting the final matches before we deliver our report on this but, at the moment, we have identified fewer suspicious matches this year than many of the years before.

EGR Compliance: Based on your observations, in which divisions are these most likely to occur? Is there a reason for this?

JC: Based on our experiences we have seen suspicious matches on all levels in Sweden that are offered on the gambling market (on the men’s side). From Allsvenskan down to the 7th tier and youth matches. Historically there have been more suspicious betting instances in matches in the 3rd and 4th  tiers. One reason for this could be that these matches are very attractive on the gambling market, but the integrity of these matches are not at the same level (or at least have not been the same) as it is for example in Allsvenskan.

EGR Compliance: Have the instances of alleged match-fixing increased or decreased in the period since the re-regulation of the Swedish gambling market? Why do you think this is?

JC: During 2019 we saw a small increase compared to 2018 and this season has really been affected by Covid-19 so in my opinion it is still to early to draw any conclusions of the re-regulation in this matter.

EGR Compliance: What are the biggest challenges for you in your role as an integrity officer and how do you work to overcome them?

JC: One of the biggest challenges is to get the information that we need for our investigations. We need and would like a lot more information from the betting companies but for most of the cases the GDPR regulations put a stick in the wheel for making that happen. We, together with many of the betting companies, are trying our best to affect the legislators in Sweden to put in place a legal ground that makes it possible for us to share the information that we need to share to get match-fixers convicted.

EGR Compliance: In what ways does the SvFF working with Swedish football clubs to stop match-fixing?

JC: We are working closely with the different league organisations (Svensk Elitfotboll for the top two tiers on the men’s side, Elitföreningen Dam for the top two tiers on the women’s side and Ettanfotboll for the third tier on the men’s side) in our preventive work. For example, helping them with education and information to the clubs.

EGR Compliance: In what ways do you work with the Swedish Gambling Authority’s anti-match-fixing council? Are there any external international bodies or gambling operators you work with?

JC: We have one seat in the anti-match-fixing council on the Swedish Sports Confederations mandate. We have a MoU regarding information sharing with Malta Gaming Authority. We have a cooperation, which we are very thankful of, with Sportradar via the UEFA agreement and with GLMS via Svenska Spel.

EGR Compliance: What is your opinion of the SGA’s new rules to stop match-event betting on things like red and yellow cards?

JC: We are in favour of the rules but we would also have liked to have a ban against other side bets in matches which are not directly connected to the final score, for example corners. We are also very positive to the ban on betting on lower leagues in Sweden. This will be a great help in getting rid of the “small scale match-fixing” that we know easily can occur on these levels when the matches are offered on the gambling market.

EGR Compliance: If you were able to put one regulation in place you knew could stop match-fixing, what would you put in place and why?

JC: If we are talking about a realistic regulation, then I would say a legal ground for information sharing between the relevant actors. This would be a great help for us in our investigative work.

EGR Compliance: Do you agree with SvFF general secretary Håkan Sjöstrand that the council has lost focus and energy and has become an ineffective discussion forum rather than an entity which combats match-fixing?

JC: Yes, I do. But I must also add that we have already seen improvement in the council’s work during this fall.

EGR Compliance: What are the SvFF’s priorities for the remainder of 2020?

JC: The top priority is to have a season finale without any suspicious matches in the last couple of rounds in our different leagues. It is also a priority to make sure, due to the pandemic, that we have a solid base to build on in our preventive work for 2021.