Paris 2024 Olympics: “The objective is to intervene as early as possible”, sports betting under close surveillance

Vers une augmentation des paris sportifs cet été ? MAXPPP – Sebastien LAPEYRERE

Les Jeux olympiques ont certes moins la cote auprès des parieurs qu'un Mondial de foot, mais ils susciteront tout de même l'intérêt aux quatre coins du globe, poussant le régulateur français des jeux en ligne à redoubler de vigilance.

North of Paris, in the brand new Porte de la Chapelle Arena which will host badminton and rhythmic gymnastics competitions this summer, the National Gaming Authority ( ANJ) and Paris 2024 took advantage of the holding of International Badminton Championships last week to raise awareness among referees.

Reminder of the betting rules in France, with the ban on betting on any Olympic discipline when you are involved (athletes, referees, volunteers, service providers, etc.), sanctions incurred (up to ;#39;to five years in prison for the offense of manipulation, or even 10 years if it is in an organized gang)… The intervention is intended to be educational.

"Raising awareness among all those who will participate in the Games"

"The Olympics are not the competition that generates the most sports bets in the world, we are far from the Football World Cup, but it's is an event with dozens of disciplines on which normally, in France, one cannot bet. So we are ready in the event of a problem", explains Corentin Segalen of the ANJ, coordinator of the national platform to combat the manipulation of sports competitions.

"The objective is to intervene as early as possible, even before the criminals have been able to place suspicious bets", he continues. To do this, the ANJ and Paris 2024 work with referees, coaches, athletes, etc. to tell them what to do if they are approached by someone who wants to rig a match, often via social networks.

Also read: 63% of French people do not want Aya Nakamura to sing Édith Piaf at the 2024 Paris Olympics: here are the names proposed to replace her

"We have been working for almost a year to raise awareness among all those who will participate in the Games. The risk exists, they must keep it in mind", opines Blandine Sorbe, director of compliance for Paris 2024. To badminton referees, a sport which generates a lot of betting, particularly in Asia, the trainers recall an episode of the 2012 Olympics where players were disqualified by the Federation for having deliberately lost, even if no connection with betting had appeared.

"Very rare" 

But for Gilles Cavert, international referee of this sport, the manipulation of competitions presents "no risk for the Olympics. At a very high level it's very, very rare. It exists at a small level , he estimates. This year, the federations' files will be crossed with those of the bettors to ensure that the rules are respected. The ANJ also has tools to analyze odds and detect suspicious behavior, with access to each player's profile.

"In France, the system is quite unique: the president of the ANJ can make a decision to suspend betting. The idea is that criminals do not make money from French betting and that good faith bettors are reimbursed", explains Corentin Segalen.

Also read: Paris Olympics 2024: "Bonuses of 500, 1,000, 1,500 euros for all mobilized agents" ad Stanislas Guerini

The stakes are high: the online sports betting market in the world is estimated in 2023 at more than 63 billion dollars (or 57 billion euros) in Gross gaming revenue, that is to say the difference, pocketed by gaming companies, between players' stakes and their winnings, according to figures presented to the arbitrators.

Some competitions are sensitive to manipulation

In France, last year, total stakes on sports betting reached 13 billion euros, including around 8.5 billion online, according to the ;ANJ, for a GGR of 2.4 billion euros.

For the Olympics, "this is not necessarily the kind of event on which our clients bet, because the athletes are less known but we will of course offer bets on all possible events", tells AFP Nicolas Béraud, boss of the Betclic betting site.

Also read: Paris 2024 Olympic Games. "It is quite clear that these are two different situations" : no, the IOC will not sanction Israel like Russia and Belarus

Since March 1, a new list of sports competitions on which betting is authorized has been published by the ANJ, with the withdrawal of certain competitions sensitive to manipulation. Many Olympic disciplines appear there, with the exception of new sports (breaking, climbing, skateboarding and surfing), 3×3 basketball, diving, artistic swimming, gymnastics, shooting, dressage and of the eventing competition. The ANJ indicates that it has not received any requests from online gaming operators to include them in the list.