In order to monitor betting patterns and combat corruption in sports, the International Olympic Committee has announced the creation of a new programme ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the 2012 London Olympics, that will enable information to be assessed and monitored from over 400 worldwide sports betting and lottery operators.
The new programme, International Sports Monitoring, will be based in Switzerland and should be in place before the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games kick off in Vancouver, Canada, on February 12th.
The system will monitor betting patterns from a large number of sports betting operators, with any suspicious bets flagged for further investigation.
The new monitoring programme follows the successful implementation of FIFA’s Early Warning System at last year’s Beijing Games, which monitored bets made on all Olympic sports in order to report on any irregular betting patterns. No irregular betting was found to have taken place during the event.
Olympic athletes taking part in Vancouver and London will also be briefed about the new programme, with all athletes being barred from placing bets on any events in the Olympics.