The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has published a set of standards governing the procedure for the collation of sporting event data for betting and opened a process for all parties engaged in data collation to demonstrate that they meet those standards. The auditing procedure will be conducted by industry specialist eCOGRA and those parties that pass that independent audit will have access to a Data Standards Kitemark.

The move follows an announcement by the association in May in which it stated that a set of standards would be the most effective means of protecting the integrity of sport, its data, betting markets generated by that data and consumers enjoying those products. IBIA, which represents many of the leading regulated sports betting operators in the world, has been concerned about the adverse impact of the manipulation of data and the related corruption of betting markets.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “When we started this process I stated that upholding the reliability and credibility of sporting event data was of paramount importance for IBIA members and that the challenges posed by the pandemic had further highlighted the necessity for robust data chains. IBIA has sought to meet that integrity challenge and has put in place a set of data standards that reflects the minimum expectations of the association and its members.

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“The association believes that data collation is an important part of the wider sports betting integrity debate and this standards and auditing process, to be conducted by leading independent and internationally approved testing agency eCOGRA, represents the next step in the association’s work in this area. We call upon all of those parties engaged in the data collation process to demonstrate that they meet these standards and of their commitment to protecting the integrity of the global data supply chain.”

Shaun McCallaghan, CEO of eCOGRA said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as IBIA’s data standards auditing partner. Our professional auditing experts have worked with companies operating in both the betting and data sectors, and eCOGRA will seek to utilise that industry knowledge to best effect in the data standards assessment process. We will also be assisting IBIA in an annual stress test and enhancement of those standards.”

The International Betting Integrity Association is the leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry. It is run by operators for operators, protecting its members from corruption through collective action. Its monitoring and alert platform is a highly effective anti-corruption tool that detects and reports suspicious activity on its members’ betting markets. The association has longstanding information sharing partnerships with leading sports and gambling regulators to utilise its data and prosecute corruption. It represents the sector at high-level policy discussion forums such as the IOC, UN, Council of Europe and European Commission.

The Data Standards document is available here .