The start of the English football season is a few days away. England’s Football Association has introduced a new betting ban that would prohibit players, managers, clubs employees and match officials from making any football-related wagers all over the world. The new rule took effect August 1. It is a massive expansion of previous rules, which covered competitions that a bettor and his club were involved.
The new ban covers the top eight tiers of English football, from the Premier League all the way down to the various divisions of the Northern Premier League and the Southern Football League. Likewise, betting on matches from other leagues are now banned under the new rule, as well as prop and event bets like in-game bets, goalscorers, score lines, the transfer season, managerial moves and pretty much every other bet involving the sport.
“We want to keep our message as simple as possible and it cannot be more simple that as a player you cannot bet at all on football,” Football Association General Secretary Alex Horne told Press Association Sport.
Anyone involved in whatever capacity in the sport should not bet on anything about the sport. That means no more gray areas under the new rules. The FA wanted to remove any of the confusion that led to numerous fines and suspensions handed down in past seasons.
The FA is confident that the new rules will provide a simple, clear, and straightforward message to all participants concerned, on where the line is drawn.
No bets on football. Not here. Not anywhere.
Meanwhile, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has re-upped its partnership with Sportradar ahead of the 2014–2015 international football season.
Under the current partnership, Sportradar will use its unique Fraud Detection System (FDS) to scrutinise worldwide betting on these competitions, and will alert CONCACAF of any suspicious events or patterns.
