MGA To Enforce Suspicious Betting Reporting In 2021

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has earned its reputation for being a leading gambling authority by never resting on its laurels. While sporting events and betting ground to a virtual halt over the course of the pandemic, the MGA has been hard at work preparing the way for its new Suspicious Betting Reporting Requirements initiative and the role of the Sports Integrity Unit (SIU).

Earlier this month the MGA released the Guidance Paper on Suspicious Betting Reporting Requirements & Other Sports Integrity Matters wherein they clarified the role of SIU saying:

“The SIU’s role consists of the gathering of intelligence and information relating to suspicious betting and will serve as a liaison with local and foreign regulatory authorities, law enforcement agencies, betting monitoring systems, sporting bodies and gaming operators in order to support the investigation of irregular and suspicious betting activity.”

This initiative will see the SIU actively monitoring, reporting on, and then pursuing via all available legal channels, any criminal manipulation of sporting events and competitions.

Phase one of the initiative launches November 2020, however, the Authority will not enforce the program until January 2021 to allow operators to put the necessary people and processes in place.

 Safe Betting Is a Team Sport

The recently released mandate surrounding the Suspicious Betting Reporting Requirements initiative was not done in isolation, rather the MGA entered into a consultative process with B2B licensees which lasted seven weeks.

The intent of this consultation was to investigate what data could legally be made available to the SIU and how this could be best utilised to root out interference in competitions to preserve the integrity of sports and sports betting.

The initiative also includes the understanding that as part of their B2C license agreement with the MGA all online betting operators will abide by the requirements laid out by the Authority.

 Simple Is As Simple Does

To ensure that operators can easily report suspicious cases the MGA has created a robust yet user-friendly online submission form which caters for reporting a suspicious event, a suspicious account, or both.

Should it be an event the feedback must include “type of sport, date of the event, names of participants/teams, and the name of the league, cup, or event involved” as well as the reason the person making the report feels the event has been comprised.

Where are particular account is being reported for suspicious behaviours the person making the report will be required furnish proof of connections to other suspect accounts, changes in betting behaviours, as well as noting the age of the account and specific suspicious actions.

For the MGA to act on a notice of suspicion they operator will have to supply:

• Description of the markets on which suspicious activity has occurred
• Geographic origin of the account holder
• Timing of bets
• Notification of any new accounts
• Account profile information
• Possible links to participants partaking in the sporting event
• Reasons as to why the activity is being deemed as suspicious
• List of the bodies/agencies also being notified of the activity reported

The MGA may decide to act on the basis of the provided information, however, should it feel the provided documentation does not satisfy the demands of a full investigation they may require additional information from the operators.

Any cases where the SIU can prove misconduct and the event in question pertains to a Malta licensee, Malta-based entity or took place in Malta they will pursue bad actors to the fullest extent allowed under the law.