The head of Sportsbet, Australia’s biggest online betting brand, has admitted the company has failed in its duty to protect the integrity of major sporting events.
Barni Evans was speaking about the advertising campaigns his firm embarked on, as well as not doing enough to understand its responsibilities to crack down on financial crime.
Speaking at a conference in Sydney on Wednesday (Mar 13), Evans acknowledged that the company “forgot to do some grown-up things” and “stuffed a lot of things up”, including an indulgence in an advertising “arms race”.
His comments will be welcomed by many industry insiders, including regulators, especially on the issue of defending against serious integrity threats to top-level sports.
This is a rising global issue, with similar themes occurring in the United States as prominent athletes and officials are targeted by threat actors.
“I have come to truly appreciate that we have got a really important job to do to protect Australians from organised and financial crime,” said Evans.
He continued in his frank address to various gambling executives, “It didn’t dawn on me five years ago and does now. We take that very seriously.”
Hang our heads in shame
The enlightening contribution from the Sportsbet CEO contained several revelations on what he described as a failed strategy in recent years, as well as a commitment to now proceed with the right steps.
One of the hands-up moments was that the Flutter-owned brand had previously done a “terrible job” of alerting the authorities to red-flag transactions that may have been attempts to tamper in sports.
“That took three or four years to catch on and a few incidents to alarm us, or shock us into (realising), actually, we have got a role to play here and we can help sports do a much better job.”
Evans also slammed the industry, declaring the companies and government bodies should “hang our heads in shame” over the time lost to introduce an effective national self-exclusion programme for users to seek redress on gambling problems.
“No single person is responsible for that … but our ecosystem failed,” he said.
Last year, Australia’s financial intelligence authority accepted an enforceable declaration from Sportsbet that it would bring its compliance framework up to the required standard, in line with all relevant anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing legislation.
With the heat still on and Sportsbet still under the spotlight, there will be an expectation for Evans and others to lead the industry to calmer, safer waters.
Image credit: Flutter
