The Nevada Gaming Control Board is teaming up with the International Olympic Committee and no, it’s not to compete in the skiing competition in Sochi.
The two organizations have become tag-team partners in an attempt to prevent match-fixing or cheating of whatever sort at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. And here we though that Nevada was on the verge of beginning to allow Olympic betting, something it’s currently not allowed to do. Oh, well…
On a more serious note, the partnership between the state regulator and the IOC represents a significant step towards putting a blanket on match-fixing in the Olympics. While it’s not the most bet-on sporting event in the world, let alone the snowy variety of it, the Olympics could still attract some form of shadiness, in part because all the athletes playing in the event aren’t getting paid to do so. That formula makes it ripe for fixers to put their claws on some athletes looking to make a buck in exchange for national pride.
So the IOC is taking all the steps it feels it needs to do to ensure a clean Olympic games and it found a partner willing to do the investigative and monitoring work to ensure that no form of match fixing happens during the three weeks when the quadrennial event takes center stage. This kind of collaboration isn’t new for the the NGCB; in fact, it’s already tied up with the NFL and Major League Baseball, among other prominent sporting organizations, in this kind of arrangement.
Olympic committee spokesman Mark Adams told the Associated Press that the partnership between the two organizations is part of the committee’s new anti-match-fixing system it has christened the ‘‘Integrity Betting Intelligence System”.
‘‘IBIS collates alerts and information on manipulation through betting on sport, and will also be placed at the disposal of International Federations during their major championships,’’ Adams said in a statement, as quoted by the AP.
So it is, the IOC and the Nevada Gaming Control Board is teaming up to help curb match-fixing at the Olympics. Hopefully, this collaboration yields the kind of results that’ll help keep the luster of the Winter Games.
