RunningBall at Conference in EU Parliament
RunningBall representatives attend “Integrity in sport” conference in Brussels
Hünenberg (Switzerland), 5 May 2011 - RunningBall (www.rball.com), the Number One in the real-time sports information sector, participated at the conference “Integrity in sport – Responses to the problem of match fixing” in Brussels on 3 May.
Sports need to be protected by all available means against harmful outside influence such as match fixing. This was the main conclusion reached by politicians, representatives of sport organisations and experts at the conference organized by the Austrian Sports Confederation and the European Parliament.
“There is a need for action due to the increasing number of betting scandals”, Evelyn Regner and Heinz Becker stated in their speeches. Both being members of the European Parliament emphasized that “the European legislator will take this issue on board and debate suitable measures to fight against this new scourge in sport”.
Rudolf Stinner, director for compliance and security at RunningBall AG, echoed these sentiments und underlined the company’s commitment to this fight. Stinner, who has extensive experience from his previous work as specialized police officer, advocated a European-wide concentration of all investigative and judicial resources. “In many European states, the laws need to be adapted to tackle these new forms of offences.”
In the area of sports data gathering and distribution, Stinner is overseeing RunningBall’s efforts to ensure the absolute integrity of data. For all its products and services, RunningBall puts great emphasis on speed, reliability and direct, automated transmission to customers. RunningBall sets itself the most rigorous standards to ensure top quality in every respect.
“Harmonization of national and regional legislation and sport rules is especially important to be able to fight effectively against match-fixing”, emphasized Andrew Ryan, director of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). ”Regarding the financing of the fight against betting manipulations, public authorities have to provide generous support”.
Barbara Spindler, Secretary General of the Austrian Sports Confederation, underlined the importance of prevention and the necessity for cooperation of public authorities and sport betting providers with sport organizations in the fight against match-fixing. “Prevention through awareness raising, relevant information and exchange of good practices are important as well as effective measures in this fight”.
Georg Pangl, CEO of the Austrian Football League, recommended to better coordinate or even bring together the different systems set up to detect betting manipulations at international, European and national level.
