What athletes need to know about sports betting and anti-corruption rules

It might be thought that the job of an athlete is difficult but simple: try to win and don’t cheat. If only things were that straightforward. In recent years, governing bodies have enforced the full extent of their codes of conduct to try to root out corruption and ensure fair play. Match-fixing is the headline example, for which severe punishments have been handed out. But there are other possible infringements of anti-corruption regulations, such as sports betting, which athletes must be very careful about.

There have been several recent cases of athletes being caught out by the regulations being unaware (or at least, not found to have been aware) that what they were doing was a problem. We have had the Sandro Tonali and Ivan Toney cases having taken place in the last two years with the Lucas Paqueta currently facing an investigation by The Football Association (The FA). It is not always easy for an athlete to know where they stand, particularly since different sports have different codes of conduct, which makes it difficult to give clear and precise advice for all athletes to follow.

This article provides some key principles that athletes should keep in mind:

1. Don’t bet on it – even if you’re not in the game
2. Caution family and friends against betting
3. Be careful with what you say
4. Stay away from the guilty
5. Mitigation as a last resort