Securing Sport 2013, the leading international sports security and integrity conference, will be held in Doha on March 18 and19. The meeting will address issues related to international betting and the measures sport federations need to take to stay ahead of the challenges.
The conference will bring together 400 international experts and stakeholders to share knowledge and best practices in sports, safety, security and integrity under the theme of “Advancing the security and integrity of sport to safeguard the future.”
Chris Eaton, director of Sport Integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), will lead the panel session, “The Internationalisation of Betting - Keeping Ahead of the Curve.”
Joining him on the panel will be Professor Emre Alkin, general secretary of the Turkish Football Federation; Paul Scotney, director and Integrity Consultant at Sports Integrity Services; and Friedrich Stickler, president of the European Lotteries Association.
“As we have seen last week with the information released by Europol and the following discussions all over the world, sport is under unprecedented attack from criminals and opportunists who conspire to manipulate the results of competitions around the world,” said Eaton.
The “Internationalisation of Betting” panel session at Securing Sport 2013 will examine how the world of sports betting is becoming continually more difficult to track and how international crime is infiltrating betting markets.
Panellists will also discuss how sports federations, European lotteries and betting operators are committed to preserving the integrity of betting markets and sports, and how they can work in collaboration to stop the infiltration of international crime.
Another panel session - “Elite Sport at a Cost: Is Sport Protecting its Elite at the Expense of its Integrity?” - will include Bill Bock, general counsel at the US Anti-Doping Agency. It will look at events over the past 12 months and how educating elite athletes can help protect the integrity of sports.
To underline the importance of the integrity topics to be discussed, Securing Sport 2013 will also offer a workshop, “Targeting Asian Betting Markets.”
This focused workshop will allow delegates to discuss and debate tailored solutions in sports betting and how the industry can support the development of effective programmes and governance in this area.
Helmut Spahn, executive director of ICSS, said: “Sporting integrity has never been as important or crucial. Chris Eaton’s panel on international betting is an unmissable session at Securing Sport 2013. I look forward to welcoming organisations from around the world, including international governing bodies, mega-event experts and world-class international athletes, for what I am sure will be an important platform for sharing information and exploring best practices in the field of sports, safety, security and integrity.”
Other high-profile speakers and leading figures already confirmed for this year’s conference include Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and International Rowing Federation;  Hassan al-Thawadi, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee secretary-general; Gérard Houllier, head of Global Soccer, Red Bull; Alexander Atamanenko, CEO of Donbass Arena, Donetsk; Lord Stevens, chairman of the ICSS Advisory Board and former Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police; Alessandro Del Piero, member of the Italian squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Captain of the Save the Dream elite athletes team; Sylvia Schenk, senior adviser for Sport at Transparency International; and John Amaechi, managing director of Amaechi Performance Systems.
More speakers, panellists and events will be announced over the coming weeks.