Investigating betting patterns top of IOC list

IOCIf you’re interested in sports and read a newspaper, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the whole country was up in arms at the prospect of Shrek earning £200,000. Irked even more were the Daily Mail at being charged £300 for a photo of the said computer generation with his favourite red football shirt and Scottish warlord. More important was the news coming out of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Talking to the media on Sunday, IOC president Jacques Rogge told how he’s set up a firm to monitor illegal betting patterns in relation to the Olympic Games. International Sports Monitoring (ISM) will monitor the gambling industry for signs that illegal betting is taking place on IOC events.

“One day there will be match fixing in the Olympic Games,” Rogge commented, “That is why we built a company which has already monitored the Beijing and Vancouver games.”

No incidents have so far been identified by the IOC at the two events in Vancouver (Winter Olympics) and Beijing (Summer Olympics) that they trialled the system at. The summer Olympics in London will be one the next event the system is used at.