The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has warned individuals who are involved in match fixing that there is no escape for them in the law as they have their Integrity Code in place since 2016.
BWF secretary general Thomas, has strongly indicated that the world body has united their authority to investigate various allegations regarding betting, match-fixing and other corruption related to it. He further said that under this code they are fully capable to demand interviews of any person that is related to this sport. Furthermore, the code also allows them to confiscate laptops and mobile phones of those individuals that come under scrutiny after they have been alleged to be part of a match fixing incident.
BWF will also be very well in their rights to demand telephone records of these individuals for the purpose of further investigation.
The Integrity Code consists of quite clear-cut and well-organized rules that are laid down to avoid any illegal activity in the sport. For example, it is an offence for a badminton personnel if he chooses not to report any knowledge about illegal betting, soliciting or any other similar activity that can potentially be very harmful for the game.
An individual must also avoid from tampering and destroying any evidence that may lead to the suspect and the person is also fully liable to cooperate with BWF during the investigation if any such situation occurs.
The BWF secretary also claimed that the Integrity Code covers all those who are a part of this sport in any way and it is also a representation of the fact that we take the integrity of our sport quite seriously.
He further added that regulation to keep the integrity in check is a key element to ensure that the sport remains clean and for this purpose punishments as well as various sanctions have been put in place that have quite significant implications and in serious case scenarios a life time ban from badminton can be a possibility.
In order to preserve the sport from getting tarnished by match fixers BWF has formed a long-term integrity partnership with Genius Sports in order to counter them.
Genius Sports has a state-of-the-art bet-monitoring system in place that is capable to compare real-time odds movements that are from global betting markets. It also collects intelligence from hundreds of betting operators, to identify and capture any irregular activity in real time.
This announcement has come after the recent hearing of two Malaysian shuttlers, who were being investigated on match-fixing.
Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Tan Chun Seang have since been suspended. The badminton players attended a hearing in Singapore and were accompanied by their lawyers at the time.
