Key Details From First Draft of Canadian Program to Prevent Competition Manipulation

In the wake of a couple of betting scandals in sports, there are a lot of questions about the future of sports betting in Canada. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and Canadian Olympic Committee released a set of guidelines that might be used to help clear up the rules around competition manipulation in the future.

First draft of the Canadian Program to Prevent Competition Manipulation released

Many Canadians are probably wondering about what the provinces, betting sites in Canada, and sports leagues around the world are doing to prevent match-fixing and betting corruption following Jontay Porter’s ban from the NBA and Shawn Lemon’s suspension from the CFL. Porter was banned from the NBA for life for betting on NBA games. Lemon was suspended indefinitely a week later for betting on CFL games. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) recently released the first draft of the Canadian Program to Prevent Competition Manipulation (CPPCM). “The first draft of the CPPCM has been designed to protect against efforts to improperly impact sport competitions by establishing rules and clearly defining violations.”

The CPPCM “is supported by a consistent scheme of education, enforcement, and sanctions that are applicable to all individuals who are subject to the CPPCM.” The draft is 30 pages long and explains everything from who could be held accountable under the rules to violations and sanctions. CCES president and CEO Jeremy Luke spoke about the draft’s importance during an interview with the CBC. “I think what’s missing though is a really comprehensive approach that would apply across all of our sports, not just professional sports. That makes sure that Canadians sports athletes, our national level athletes, and our olympic athletes are all protected through policy and education.”

Violations under the draft

A list of competition manipulation violations is presented in the draft. The list of violations includes betting, bribery, manipulation of a sport competition, corrupt conduct, inside information, failure to cooperate, false allegations, solicitation, and more. All of the violations are explained in detail. Under these rules, athletes, participants, and anyone betting on their behalf would be banned from betting on any competition of the participant’s national sport organization, or any such competition including multisport competition events, from the national sport organization’s international federation.

The sport organization can also designate a competition, sport, or event in their adoption contract to fall under the scope of the CPPCM. No participant shall do anything, directly or indirectly, to solicit, encourage, or facilitate any other person to bet on the result or any other aspect of specified competitions. Under these guidelines, corrupt conduct is defined as “providing, requesting, receiving, seeking, or accepting a benefit related to the manipulation of a sport competition.”

Sanctions for breaking the rules

Sanctions for breaking each of the rules listed above are given in the draft. For betting on a competition or occurrence, without manipulation, that the participant directly participated in, the participant can receive anything from a warning with no period of suspension to a suspension for three years and financial consequences. For violating the rules around bribery, manipulation of a sport competition, or corrupt conduct, “the applicable sanction should be four years where the competition manipulation violation is related to betting and should be two years where the competition manipulation violation is sport related.”

A ton of factors will be taken into account when considering the sanctions: planning and intention to manipulate, number and size of the bets, benefits, persuasion, coercion, and consequences to the overall integrity of the competition. The penalty for competition manipulation violations can reach up to a “maximum period of permanent ineligibility” for some cases. “I think there is a risk to all sports. I’ve said in the past, this is a risk that is at the same level as doping in sport because of how easy manipulation can happen in sports and the volume of betting that is happening on sport. If we turn a blind eye or are complacent and assume this is an isolated incident and it’s not that big a deal, we could be facing really significant scandals around the integrity of sport and particularly around the safety of those people that participate,” Luke said.