Gambling ads are poisoning the culture of sport.
When the bet becomes the storyline, the game suffers — and the athletes suffer most of all.
Betting disembodies sport — it reduces a whole-body, culturally rich form of human interaction to solitary fingering on a smartphone. In-game betting is about micro-results, such as who scores the first goal or whether the next pitch is a ball or a strike, not the game itself. Canada's crisis of physical inactivity is only exacerbated by an industry that turns sport into something you wager on rather than something you play.
Sports betting also encourages game manipulation and cheating, and it subjects players who disappoint bettors to violence and abuse — a risk that extends to officials, coaches, and other vulnerable people around the game. Children memorize betting slogans before they finish primary school. Every broadcast becomes a vehicle for promotion rather than play.
That is why we have taken this fight to sport's highest bodies: read our letters to the IOC and IPC urging them to end sports-betting sponsorship and marketing in the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
More one-pagers coming soon
Campaign members are preparing further downloadable one-page briefs for this section: Match fixing and competition manipulation, A safe sport issue, and The corruption of sports journalism. They will be posted here — in the meantime, read the Macolin Convention brief below, the full case, or browse the research.
Canada should sign and ratify the Macolin Convention.
The Macolin Convention, formally known as the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, is an international treaty designed to combat match-fixing, illegal sports betting, money laundering and the other criminal activities associated with sports betting. Initiated in 2014, the treaty went into effect on September 1, 2019. It has been ratified by 17 European countries and signed by 43 other European countries, plus Australia and Morocco. Ratification is the highest level of commitment: it means that a country agrees to be bound by the requirements of the treaty.
While a treaty among governments, the Convention also applies to international sports organizations, through the International Olympic Committee. In line with the Convention, the IOC has established the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions, and made it binding upon all international sports federations in the Olympic sports. The IOC holds Observer Status on the Follow-Up Committee of the Convention.
But without legal status, the Convention has very little effectiveness in Canada. Match-fixing and competition manipulation are not illegal in Canada — they are simply not mentioned in the Criminal Code — and even with the Olympic Movement Code, sports bodies have little capacity to address these practices. Ratification of the Macolin Convention would thus give Canada the legal tools and the agency of government to combat them. At the same time, ratification would give decision-makers access to a strong international network of surveillance, detection and enforcement.
The Convention also provides legal authority to reduce other harms of sports betting. Section 9b directs countries to “limit the supply of sports betting” — that is, reduce the sports, events and circumstances on which bets can be placed. In particular, it directs states to ban bets on sports where players under the age of 18 are involved. Under Section 6, governments are encouraged to undertake education and research about the harms of sports betting.
Sport Integrity Canada (formerly the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport) and the Canadian Olympic Committee also call upon the Canadian Government to sign and ratify Macolin.
Given the many ways in which sports betting and its related harms have been internationalized, Canada and the world need an aggressive, internationally coordinated approach. Joining the Macolin community would be an important step towards such coordination for Canada.
The full treaty text is available from the Council of Europe: CETS 215 — Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions.
It doesn't start with a bet.
It starts with an ad.
Tell your MP to pass Bill S‑211 — it takes a minute.