“Intensifying the fight against corruption in sport and assisting lotteries and partners to reorganise themselves has been GLMS’ primary objective as a response to this unprecedented crisis. We have been focusing on inspiring effective actions to plan recovery and post recovery strategies while devoting our operational capabilities in safeguarding sport integrity, members’ profitability, and consumers’ protection.” said Ludovico Calvi, President of Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) to The Betting Coach on the occasion of the online event organized by Sports Betting Community (SBC).
The SBC Digital Summit, a digital event organized from April 27 to May 1 2020, has broken down the barriers of distance imposed by Covid19, offering the opportunity to create digital networking opportunities among delegates and to encourage the gaming industry to introduce new and innovative measures to safeguard business continuity amid the Covid-19 crisis.
A mix of virtual exhibition stands and effective video analysis panels welcomed over 10,000 visitors from all over the world; an unprecedented success that lays the foundations for a fresh evolution in gaming events organisation.
During the week-long digital summit, which was accessible via the SBC Summit’s official website, a large number of experts and industry leaders came virtually together to present their points of view, sharing ideas and proposing solutions to best face the current unprecedented market scenario.
During one of the sessions in the Summit, our team of The Betting Coach exchanged views with one of the most recognized and established industry leaders globally: Ludovico Calvi.
As part of their strategic partnership established in late 2019 with SBC, Calvi and GLMS united with SBC to present the audience the event session Lottery Day on 29 April. During the various panels on the day, GLMS members, with Lottery stakeholders and partners, were fully engaged and actively contributing to proposals for new and inspiring solutions to the audience.
With his comprehensive Opening Address to the Lottery Day, Calvi presented the vision and mission of GLMS and emphasised GLMS’ strategic approach against sports corruption through multi-stakeholder aspects and integrity monitoring hubs that GLMS has worldwide.
Ludovico also focused on the challenges that are currently being faced by the lottery sector and the actions taken by lotteries during these unprecedented times while our health and safety have become our greatest concern.
In his opening keynote, the GLMS President described a number of possible effective responses to the crisis that may be taken or have already been implemented by lotteries and gaming organizations, including essential actions to safeguard the care and safety of employees such as their physical and psychological well-being.
He further talked about business continuity and how the gaming industry has had to review organizational processes to swiftly adapt existing models and re-allocate available resources to meet new challenges on an almost daily basis. Effective and comprehensive communications strategies have turned out to be paramount in the way organizations have been able to engage employees, partners and public institutions. GLMS members’ representatives were speakers in various panels over the day and illustrated with examples and methods the measures they have implemented over the last few weeks.
Gaming organisations have also reacted promptly to optimize their costs to align themselves with new and completely unexpected market realities while safeguarding profitability and cash flow levels. Financial sustainability is also being guaranteed by the undertaking of governments tax relief in the form of changes to tax rates or deferring tax payments to later dates as well as direct financial support from various governments in the form of loans or grants.
In conclusion, Ludovico presented a post-crisis outlook for successful gaming companies, touching on key engagement of human resource competencies, financial stability, the evolution of living services, innovative and measurable delivery models, automated digital processes and data driven artificial intelligence.
More information on Lottery Day can be found on the GLMS website here.
HERE IS OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH LUDOVICO CALVI:
1 – You are the current president of GLMS and have had an intense and fascinating career in the gaming industry. You are very knowledgeable and bring considerable experience to the service of the lottery and gaming world. Who is Ludovico Calvi and what has been his path to date?
Ludovico Calvi is a veteran of the gaming market with an in-depth professional profile, significant experience in the betting sector – 28 years – and a solid experience of results generated in different and complex business scenarios.
I studied business and finance at the University of West London, formerly Thames Valley University, in London and have held various management positions in the sports betting sector, leading many projects to generate profits and shareholder value.
My career as an executive began in the UK, where I held the position of Operations Manager at William HILL Plc, contributing to the launch and growth of its International Betting Division – Action Line – which eventually led to the launch of William HILL spread betting venture – William HILL Index.
In the years 2015/17, I was Senior Vice President, Global Product Marketing Betting at International Game Technology, company known as IGT, the gaming industry B2B global leader (products, software and services). In this position, I carried out the first activity of the integrated betting group which completed a strategic planning cycle for innovative products, designed and promoted IGT betting products, roadmaps and services with customized turnkey solutions all over the world: Betfred, Paddy Power, Sporting Bet, Stan James , Boyles Sports (Irlanda-UK), Loterie Nationale De Belgique (Belgium), Singapore Pools (Singapore), OPAP (Greece), Lottomatica (Italy), Szerencsejáték Zrt (Hungary), William HILL Spain, Marca (Spain), Pronosticos ( Mexico), Polla Chilena (Chile), MGM Resorts (USA). Among my most lasting and certainly most significant experiences was my role from 2009-2016 as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Head of Betting of Lottomatica Scommesse Srl (an IGT Plc Italian subsidiary as well as leading gaming operator licensed in Italy, with business across multiple segments and products.). Today, I am a Non Executive Board Director of the group, a position I took on in 2016.
As CEO of Lottomatica Scommesse Srl, I worked to create a profitable new division within Lottomatica with profit growth achieved on all betting products and together with my team, we provided the fastest start-up in the history of European sports betting operations serving a market of 50 million customers current and potential.
Since June 2015 I have been part of the Executive Committee of the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) and since June 2017 I am its President, elected with an overwhelming majority of votes, newly appointed in May 2019 for the period 2019-2021. I am also been a member of World Lottery Association (WLA) Sports Integrity Committee since a year ago.
I am a Member of the American Gaming Association Sport Betting Task Force since May 2015.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) is the premier US national trade group and its members include commercial and tribal casino operators, suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. The remarkable efforts by the Association Sports Betting Task Force has led to the US Supreme Court ruling declaring the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional, a decision that has paved the way for legalized sports betting in the U.S.
In addition to the tasks mentioned above, since October 2017, I am a betting and gaming consultant, providing strategic, regulatory and operational consultancy services to private and public stakeholders including private licensed operators, governments, ministries of finance, regulators, lotteries, sport federations and law enforcement agencies.
Among my other experiences, I held the position of Vice President, Product Marketing Betting heading GTECH Plc Betting Division across all regions, while maintaining my role as Head of the Italian Betting Business serving all segments of the betting industry; as an operator in the retail and digital space in Italy; and as a technology partner delivering B2B and B2C solutions.
Returning to my experiences in Italy, I was also a strategic consultant for Sisal Spa (Italy) for approximately 8 years. The main objective of the assignment was to create a betting division within Sisal SpA. Initially a strong focus of the assignment was on guiding the Italian regulator to define and implement the national legal and regulatory betting framework.
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2 – GLMS is the monitoring system which, among other things, aims to detect and analyze suspicious betting activities which threaten the integrity of the sport competitions. What are we talking about, how does this control process take place and what tools are used to prevent and combat the phenomenon of match-fixing?
The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) is the state lotteries’ mutualized monitoring system on sports betting. It aims at preventing, detecting and analyzing irregular and suspicious betting activities that could question the integrity of a sport competition. GLMS has 36 members on 4 continents in 32 countries making GLMS a truly global organization with operating hubs in Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Montreal.
Building on six years of experience with the establishment in 2009 of ELMS with European Lotteries, GLMS went global in January 2015 extending the network to other continents. The goal is to facilitate the sharing of sports betting information as part of its members’ collective efforts to ensure the integrity of sports globally. The alliance is dedicated to effective cooperation with all major stakeholders, i.e. regulators, law enforcement authorities and sports organizations.
Here are the 32 individual Members from 4 continents:
(Österreichische Lotterien – Austria, Loterie Nationale – Belgium, Hrvatska Lutrija – Croatia, SAZKA – Czech Republic, Danske Spil – Denmark, Veikkaus – Finland, La Française Des Jeux – France, Opap SA – Greece, Szerencsejatek – Hungary, Islenk Getspa – Iceland, Israel Sports Betting Board – Israel, Lottomatica – Italy, Sisal – Italy, Maltco Lotteries Ltd – Malta, Norsk Tipping – Norway, Santa Casa De Misericordia da Lisboa – Portugal, STOLOTO – Russia, Sportna Loterija – Slovenia, Svenska Spel – Sweden, Loterie Romande – Switzerland, Swisslos – Switzerland, Nederlandse Loterij, the Netherlands, Hong Kong Jockey Club – Hong Kong, Singapore Pools – Singapore, Ktoto Co – South Korea, China Sports Lottery – China, Loto-Québec- Canada, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia – Chile, Banca de Quinielas de Montevideo – Uruguay, La Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports, Morocco, Loterie Nationale du Sénégal – Senegal) and 2 collective Members (European Lotteries Association and World Lottery Association).
GLMS has 4 associate Members: Scientific Games International (SGI), INTRALOT, IGT and ODDSET
GLMS’ ambition is to become the most credible and respected non-profit entity in the world in the fight against match fixing and safeguarding the integrity of sport and values by cooperating with public and private stakeholders at a global level. GLMS has a comprehensive network of active partners and public stakeholders:
Sport – Collaboration with IOC, FIFA, UEFA, TIU, LaLiga, RFEF
Law Enforcement Agencies – MoU with INTERPOL & EUROPOL, collaboration with Victoria Police (Australia), Moldova Police, contact with FBI
Council of Europe
- Partners of KCOOS+ (Keep Crime Out Of Sport) project (along with EL & WLA)
- Cooperation with Group of Copenhagen (informal group of national platforms)
Project partners of IntegriSport (focus on law enforcement and judiciary with countries, partnering along with EU Athletes and supported by Interpol and Council of Europe) and IntegriBall (focus on women’s and grassroots football with national football federations and supported by UEFA and Council of Europe), coordinated by CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity
Regulatory Authorities: active Partnerships and strong relations with a number of key regulatory authorities (UK, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Brazil)
eSports: partnership with eSports Integrity Coalition (ESIC)
To manage real-time data flows effectively, GLMS Integrity analysts use a peerless monitoring system to allow robots to analyse real time price volatility and detect suspicions line/price movements. GLMS predictive models analyse more than 1 mln prices every 5 seconds. On top of that, GLMS’ Operational team can leverage on our members active trading floors in 32 countries, which contribute effectively to the detection of suspicious betting patterns in retail and digital environments. The “glocal” dimension of GLMS operational arm is the real differentiator from other sports integrity entities since we have an actual local presence and intelligence on the territory and a very active global network.
Timely analyses and prompt and effective alerts allow GLMS Integrity team to activate all parties involved in the detection and management process. GLMS containment action recommendations to Members would normally be to a) increase limit thresholds, b) change drastically Prices, c) Close Betting on a given market, d) Close betting on the whole event, while engaging formally with Sport Federations, Law Enforcement Agencies, Regulators and Prosecutors.
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3 – Recent findings have shown that match fixing increasingly involves young athletes. Moreover, several cases may occur in low profile championships and minor tournaments. What are your considerations and what are the reasons which can encourage a sportsman to violate the principles of sports integrity? Finally, do you think that the recent crisis caused by Covid19 can increase the risks of sport corruption?
The phenomenon of match fixing is one of the main problems facing the world of global sport and legalized betting. There are those who believe that the manipulation of sports competition results is the natural negative evolution of sport since the economic implications linked to the development of legalised sport betting became part of the ecosystem and it is a price to pay, but personally I do not agree and I think that evidences confirm my opinion on the subject.
We have concrete and solid indications that the legalization of sports betting in many countries has averted the proliferation of black markets, criminal organisations and therefore match fixing. GLMS has always supported regulated, responsible and sustainable betting market environments since bans have often favoured sport corruption.
Unfortunately, the evidence of relatively young aged athletes being corrupted is consistent. This negative phenomenon originates from a lack of awareness and absence of a culture of sport integrity among young athletes. On top of that, the temptation of making easy money without getting caught, given the limited visibility of some low-profile sports events, have been encouraging factors and at the base of the proliferation of cases among your athletes. Further to that, when at the beginning of their careers as young athletes, they have very little to lose and therefore are more incline to take risks.
It goes without saying that in addition to athletes, key sport club stakeholders may also be implicated in such cases with the objective of making easy unfiltered money to allow the club to “survive” in low key championships where there is very little money available. The absence of sport competitions worldwide due to the outbreak of Covid-19, has created a window of opportunity for fraudsters and criminal organizations determined to manipulate residual sport competitions across the globe. GLMS Integrity Hubs together with members and partners have never been so busy as in the last 2 months in fighting the phenomena of ghost matches and match fixing. Further threats could come when sport events resume, given that the financial crisis will hit several sport organisations globally hard and at all levels, and this in turn, could potentially increase the level of vulnerability of several sport stakeholders and athletes. GLMS will continue to be extremely vigilant and active in the months to come.
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4- The Digital Summit, like all events organized by SBC, amazes for its enormous potential in relation to the quality of the topics presented and the networking opportunity. Is this the beginning of a new digitalised gaming conferencing era? What is your opinion on this?
In this moment of unprecedented crisis, which is forcing us to stay indoors and stop all the activities, digital events such as this summit could become indispensable to interact with industry leaders and experts even if on a virtual platform. The insightful suggestions and recommendations on recovery and post recovery strategies, coming out of the summit have been very valuable for those who were able to participate.
As SBC’s strategic partner, GLMS has enthusiastically supported this digital initiative and have also provided suggestions and recommendations on topics, and panel formats. We are very proud to have supported SBC effectively in organising the Lottery Day proposing a formidable line up of very experienced Lottery leaders.
The SBC Digital Summit was organized in a very short time and it has struck me how SBC have brilliantly managed to meet the needs of the industry to discuss crisis planning and recovery initiatives effectively through a very innovative and user friendly digital platform.
Personally, I would like to congratulate and thank Rasmus, Andrew and the whole SBC team for their impressive and passionate commitment and courage in organizing such an innovative summit. An important investment and a very successful organisation and formula, which will certainly open the way in the foreseeable future to further innovative digital conferences within the gaming space. A bet surely won by SBC!