UK operators renew funding to educate players on betting integrity

Leading UK operators Bet365, Betfair and Ladbrokes have renewed their partnership with the Professional Players Federation (PPF), an umbrella organisation representing the rights of British sportspeople.

The three-year agreement will see the operators provide funding for player associations to develop programmes to educate around 7,500 professional sportspeople in the UK about betting integrity and preventing match fixing.

Bet365 co-CEO and Remote Gambling Association chairman John Coates said that his company understood the need for the betting industry to work closely with the sporting sector to preserve integrity in sport, adding he was “pleased to be a part of this effort.”

Government minister for sport Hugh Robertson MP welcomed the partnership, predicting it would help “safeguard sport from cheats” and describing education as “a vital tool in the fight against corruption.”

Formerly the Institute of Professional Sport, the Professional Players Federation was established in 1991 by the Central Council of Physical Recreation to provide a forum for the professional player associations to work together for the betterment of professional sport.

PPF chairman Brendon Batson MBE said that the agreement would help ensure British professional sportspeople were “some of the best educated in the world about the dangers of match fixing.”