Safeguarding EHF competitions

Ahead of the Men’s EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia in January 2018, the EHF extended its partnership with Sportradar, the world’s leading supplier of sports and betting-related data, to provide additional services aimed at safeguarding the integrity of the federation’s competitions.

The new multi-year deal supplemented the existing relationship between the EHF and Sportradar, which sees the company provide a range of data, streaming, marketing and digital services across European Cup club competitions.

Over the past 12 months, Sportradar’s fraud detection services have been successfully employed to safeguard a range of EHF competitions, including the EHF Champions League and EHF EURO events, from potential threats through the use of its world-leading monitoring tools.

The EHF is able to call on Sportradar’s intelligence and investigation services, which utilise a team of dedicated intelligence experts to help investigate any organisations or individuals who may be targeting European competitions.

Experts from Sportradar have attended workshops organised by the EHF at the Men’s EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia and ahead of the current EHF Champions League season to provide information to club representatives as well as delegates and referees.

As part of the EHF’s approach to good governance, all of the federation’s internal stakeholders including officials, delegates and referees are also required to sign the EHF Code of Conduct.

Speaking about the cooperation with Sportradar, Markus Glaser, the EHF’s Chief Sports Officer, who is also the federation’s integrity officer, said: “We are in regular contact with Sportradar not only to monitor matches but also to ensure that all of the federation’s stakeholders are aware of the issues.”

Representatives from the EHF have attended workshops organised by Interpol on illegal gambling, match fixing and organised crime and have established links to the relevant authorities covering this area of policing.

The EHF has also developed procedures in order to forward any information received by the federation to the responsible authorities, on the understanding that any undue influence and in particular match fixing or illegal gambling may be criminal acts and must be dealt with by the relevant legal authorities.

EHF Secretary General, Martin Hausleitner, said: “As the profile of the EHF’s top competitions has increased on the international sports market, so has the threat from organised crime and possible match fixing.

“The EHF has recognised this as an issue, and in line with other major sports organisations, have put measures in place to combat any illegal activities, both in terms of monitoring and also the education of stakeholders within the sport.

“Our reputation as a fair and clean sport is of utmost importance to the EHF and we will do everything we can to protect this.”