In a session titled ‘Integrity: Tackling New-Age Threats’ at the 40th Asian Racing Conference (ARC) in Sapporo, Japan on Thursday (29 August), members of the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime outlined threats posed by the illegal wagering market and advancing technology, and delegates learned of the emerging integrity challenge in the form of gene doping.
The conference was told illegal wagering’s threat to horse racing has never been more apparent, with evolving technology highlighted as a primary catalyst behind the rapid expansion of the illegal betting market – now worth US$1.7 trillion and operating without constraints.
Mr. Martin Purbrick, Chairperson, ARF Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime was joined by Mr. Tom Chignell, Executive Manager, Racing Integrity & Betting Analysis at The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Mr. James Porteous, Research Head, ARF Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime, Senior Manager, Due Diligence and Research at The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Ms. Cliodhna Guy, Head of Licensing, Legal & Compliance (Legal Counsel), The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board; and Mr. Ronan O’Laoire, Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice Officer, Programme on Safeguarding Sport from Corruption and Crime, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Mr. Purbrick opened the session stating that “Integrity is a key word in horse racing and it is fundamental to the success of horse racing, and fundamental to any sport – if you don’t have integrity then the public doesn’t believe in the integrity of the sport and public confidence will drop.
“There is a migration of customers from betting on legal licensed markets into illegal markets, and then the complete loss of financial contribution from these operators to racing. It doesn’t just affect the legal betting operators but also the funding of racing as well.”
Mr. Porteous outlined the tactics illegal operators employ to recruit customers via online platforms, chat channels and livestreams. He explained the use of cryptocurrency which has made payments easier than ever for bookmakers and bettors and more difficult to trace.
“The illegals have zero regulatory overheads and zero concerns about reputational or ethical considerations about how they deploy technology to markets and consumers to attract customers and to boost their turnover. The theme over the last two years has been that technology has turbocharged illegal betting.
“Technology means that it is easier than ever to become an illegal bettor. The customer recruitment commissions for illegal betting agents are potentially so lucrative that they are massively incentivised financially to exploit every technological platform,” Mr. Porteous said.
Mr. Porteous described the link between offshore wagering and cyber fraud: “Illegal betting is a pillar on which these organised crime groups depend for funding. The ARF was one of the first to highlight how the exact same organised crime groups in illegal betting are also behind the global epidemic of cyber fraud.
“Through COVID we saw a surge in illegal betting and now in 2024 it’s clear that the surge in illegal betting was not temporary – that has been sustained. Illegal betting platforms are highly competitive on price and product, and have massively expanded through technology.”
Mr. Chignell spoke of a data-centric approach using computer models to uphold horse racing’s integrity against offshore threats: “Technology has made putting in place these processes and monitoring tools far more accessible for all horse racing regulators. We’re talking about the basics behind bet monitoring, which is Cloud computing. That’s made accessible through user-friendly programming languages.
“All of these organisations here at this Conference are going to have clever people who can code in ‘R’ and ‘Python’ languages, which gives us a huge amount of opportunity to build these models. At The Hong Kong Jockey Club, we are making use of ‘Machine Learning’ and are working on utilising conversational AI to query betting data.
“Technology provides an opportunity for racing authorities here to make their processes far more efficient and effective, so when suspicious betting is identified, it is communicated to Racing Stewards.”
Mr. Chignell stressed that both racing and sport bodies must understand and manage threats, otherwise confidence is at risk of being lost. He believes continued growth of the illegal market rises alongside potential profits made from betting corruption.
“The illegal market is growing far greater in jurisdictions where there is the demand but not the supply, and supply is under threat by greater regulations and costs.
“If price isn’t competitive, they’ll switch over. If you have account restrictions or have to jump through hoops for affordability checks then there’s the temptation to go over to the illegal betting market,” he said.
Mr. O’Laoire spoke of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s initiative: “The way we look at it is to more describe some of the threats, and give a framework, so that we understand a holistic perspective. We have sports-related corruption, sports-focused corruption and then there’s the interlink that is there which is organised crime.
“Sports-related corruption includes money laundering, conflicts of interest, abuse of authority and is applied to a sports context. Then there’s the more specialised forms of corruption in sport like illegal betting and competition manipulation. That’s how we’re framing things – it’s not an exhaustive list.”
Ms. Guy spoke of the role of technology: “I think technology is bringing a lot of positives and negatives in telling us what we do. It’s also bringing our issues to a local stage.”
Concluding the session with a focus on a different new-age integrity threat, Ms. Natasha Hamilton, Director of Racing Australia’s Equine Genetics Research Centre and Chair of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) Gene Doping Control Sub-Committee, explored the challenges posed by equine gene doping.
Ms. Hamilton explained how gene therapies and gene editing can be used as a form of doping with serious potential negative integrity and equine welfare outcomes. She outlined the extensive research work being carried around the globe to detect gene doping, and how racing laboratories and bodies were collaborating and sharing knowledge in anticipation of this emerging threat. Ms. Hamilton also shared how the IFHA had developed model rules to assist racing authorities to regulate gene doping.
