Interactive

Spain – Jdigital to work with la Liga to protect football’s integrity

By Phil - 25 April 2017

The Spanish football league LaLiga has signed a deal with Jdigital, a non-profit association whose main objective is to watch over the interests of online gambling in Spain.

Both entities will work together to protect the integrity of football competitions and avoid bad practices related to match fixtures and illegal sports betting.

The signing of the deal involved Javier Tebas, President of LaLiga, Alfredo Lorenzo, director of Security and Integrity of LaLiga, Sacha Michaud, President of the Spanish Online Game Association, Alberto Eljarrat, General Manager of Sportium and Oscar Garvin, President of the Commission Of Clubs of Third Division, ProLiga.

Through this agreement, LaLiga and Jdigital are committed to work together to promote good practice in sports, with special attention to Spanish football, and in the protection of the integrity of football competitions. In addition, Jdigital will promote among the member companies, to designate a person or contact point in case LaLiga detects incidents.

“Today is an important day for LaLiga and sport in general,” said Javier Tebas, regarding the signing of this agreement. “When I came to the presidency, I considered ending the betting scourge as one of the bases of our work. This is not the only guide we should follow. The Spanish online game affects our sport. La Liga welcomes all categories of football and collaborates with them in matters of prevention, training and research.”

According to a KPMG report drawn up in 2015, the socio-economic impact of professional football, comprising 42 clubs and SAD, was around 0.75 per centof GDP, generating a turnover of € 7.6bn and 140,000 jobs. In 2020, this impact is expected to reach 1.71 of GDP.

President of Jdigital, Sacha Michaud added: “We are a perfect tool to help the integrity of the sport. Years ago, the only way to bet on the world was La Quiniela, and now online betting has changed and adapted to the digitization of the sector.”

LaLiga has been working for three seasons with Sportium, the leading betting company with the greatest projection and solidity in the national market. The brand, which is characterized by its responsibility and involvement with the values of sport, goes a step further in favour of an active collaboration between all the entities involved in the fight for the integrity of national competitions.

Sportium, as LaLiga’s official betting house, also shares fundamental values such as fraud prevention, accountability and transparency.

Alberto Eljarrat, CEO of Sportium, said: “Sportium subscribed three years ago an agreement with LaLiga whose main objective was to get good practices in the sport. This collaboration has been intensifying over time and as we have been getting more information, and more detection in the digital game. This agreement is a magnificent idea because it is a way of trying to eliminate this scourge through the collaboration of all the parties.”