GLMS: ‘We need Latin American members’

The sports betting market has experienced significant growth in Latin America over the past few years. It’s not a stretch to say that sports and betting need each other to survive. Even though sports are not subject to other industries, agreements with sports betting companies provide them with a solid foundation to be able to operate.

If the sports betting industry aims to be successful and sports aspire to keep its integrity intact, it’s necessary that each market applies specific rules to guide operators, teams and organizations.

The lottery monitoring system GLMS focuses on detecting and analyzing suspicious betting activity that could question the integrity of a sports competition. Earlier this month, the owner of a first division team in Colombia, Boyacá Chicó, claimed that bookmakers intervene in the results of football games. 

Despite GLMS and the Colombian trade body Fecoljuegos stating that no unusual activity had happened during the games, these false accusations contributed to a negative image of the industry.

Ludovico Calvi, President of GLMS, told SBC Americas’ sister site SBC Noticias that the negative image can only be improved with professional and extended communication.

He stated: “In order to change the public perception, communicating clearly and educating the athletes and sport stakeholders, including media, is by far the best answer you can give to the community and to the public at large when it comes to sports betting.” 

GLMS has three hubs in Hong Kong, Denmark and Canada that work 24/7 in monitoring sport competitions worldwide. They have a “glocal” approach, as it uses an international network through its members and partners, with local knowledge and expertise.

In 2019, the monitoring system detected 59 alerts on South American football, but only 9 were considered suspicious through the Green-Yellow-Red tool. The other 50 alerts had significant odds movements, but all of them had explainable reasons.

Most countries in Latin America have unclear laws when it comes to online gambling. Players can access unlicensed foreign sites which often have no consumer protection frameworks in place. However, Latin America is not the most concerned area on manipulated cases at the moment, according to GLMS. 

Calvi added: “Corruption cases in sport usually shift their focus from one place to another. Therefore, there is not much difference in operational work as we are well-prepared to monitor every sport in the various continents. More Latin American Members would help safeguarding integrity as local information is always the most valuable for GLMS.”

The GLMS President also highlighted the importance of more Latin American members using the monitoring system to protect integrity in sports: “Less is more is not really applicable when it comes to fighting against match-fixing. Actually, it’s the opposite. 

“The more we are, the better we can place bets all around the world. Manipulation is a worldwide phenomenon and we need Latin American members to join GLMS to maximize our chances to put criminals in jail.”