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Lack of governance of football friendly (non-competitive) matches exploited by match-fixers
Football friendly matches are wide open for match-fixing due to a lack of regulation according to new research, with more than 250 friendlies involving European clubs showing signs of suspicious activity during 2016-20. The results come from a three-year study funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and led by the University of Nicosia Research Foundation.
A survey of 700 players in Cyprus, Greece and Malta conducted by the project also found that:
- More than a quarter of players (26.5%) had played in a club friendly they suspected had been manipulated.
- More than a quarter (26.3%) of approaches to fix a friendly match were made by club officials and 15% by other players.
- Club officials were the instigators in 19% of approaches to manipulate friendlies and were the main beneficiaries in 26.3% of approaches.
The research study found that international and national football federations have been slow to establish where responsibility lies for friendlies, particularly when clubs from different countries are involved in non-competitive matches played in a third country. Some European football federations do not track where clubs go on pre-season and mid-winter tours.
This lack of sporting governance and regulation, combined with the availability of these games on betting markets around the world, notably with poorly or unregulated betting operators in jurisdictions such as Curaçao and the Philippines, who may themselves have links to criminality, leaves these games at greater risk of potential exploitation by match-fixers.
To address this, the report, Combating Match Fixing in Club Football Non-Competitive Friendlies, proposes:
- That UEFA enforces regulation of friendlies on all 55 member associations
- That match agents are barred from owning or controlling clubs, just as players agents are
- The formation of a body to represent match agents in future negotiations with international bodies such as FIFA and UEFA on regulation
- Establishing data standards that prevent the sale of live match data to poorly and unregulated betting operators
Unlike competitive matches, which are usually covered by agreements between data companies and competition organisers, friendlies are a free-for-all.
Data from these games is being collected and sold to poorly and unregulated betting operators, which do not report signs of suspicious activity, which is often a licensing requirement for well-regulated operators. This sporting event data collation and sale for betting does not currently fall within the scope of regulation, leaving a potential ‘blind spot’ in terms of market and consumer protection.
Lead investigator, Professor Nicos Kartakoullis, President of the Council, University of Nicosia, comments:
“The combination of a lack of regulation, oversight and information makes these matches easier to manipulate than competitive matches.
“This research shows that in terms of governance, friendly matches need to be considered just like competitive matches.
“With the data for 4,000 friendly matches being offered for betting purposes around the world each year, it is also vital that the betting companies receiving that data are operating from well-regulated jurisdictions and report suspicious betting to protect the integrity of those events.”
The research was led by the University of Nicosia Research Foundation and included the International Betting Integrity Association, EU Athletes, CIES and the football players unions of Cyprus, Greece and Malta as project partners.
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Gambling in the USA
Scientific Games Introduces GlowMark, All-New Fluorescent Marking System for Lottery Extended Play Scratch Games
Vibrant Neon Marking System Enhances the Play Experience for Popular Crossword and Bingo Games
Scientific Games has created an all-new fluorescent marking system for lottery extended play scratch games such as crossword and bingo, adding a vibrant neon glow to the play experience. Recognizing the expanding popularity of extended play games, which have seen significant growth in recent years, the company’s metro Atlanta-based scratch game designers, game programmers, chemists and production experts developed GlowMark to give players a bright fluorescent surprise when they scratch the game. The innovation is available to U.S. and international lotteries.
Scientific Games, the world’s largest creator, producer and manager of lottery games, offers more than 100 strategic product enhancements for its world-leading lottery instant products. The new GlowMark marking system reveals a contrasting neon fluorescent color when the player scratches the play area, a vibrant departure from the typical white reveal area found in most games.
SG Analytics indicate extended play lottery games have grown by 32% in the past five years (2019-2024). Today, they represent 18.3% of U.S. lottery retail sales. What was once a niche product is now offered by 44 U.S. lotteries, with retail sales topping $11.5 billion last year.
Scratch games featuring fluorescent inks also grew in popularity, representing more than 12% of games in the market by fiscal year 2025. Additionally, $10 scratch games with fluorescent inks outperformed other $10 games by nearly 9% in fiscal year 2025.
“Our Innovation and Discovery teams developed this innovation by using fluorescents to enhance the scratch game experience and are now thrilled to debut GlowMark, our newest advancement in extended play marking systems,” said Danielle Hodges, Senior Director, Global Product Innovation & Development for Scientific Games. “GlowMark gives games a strong, visually appealing contrast between the marked and unmarked areas of the game, adding excitement with glowing neon colors.”
Extended play scratch games produced at Scientific Games’ metro Atlanta global headquarters, as well as production facilities in Canada and the UK, can feature GlowMark. The company’s products represent 70% of lottery instant game global retail sales.
Innovating products and solutions that move the global lottery industry forward since 1973, Scientific Games provides retail and digital games, technology, analytics and services to 150 lotteries in 50 countries worldwide.
GlowMark
is a trademark of Scientific Games, LLC. © 2025 Scientific Games, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Gambling in the USA
Resorts World Las Vegas Appoints Respected Industry Leaders Lou Dorn as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary; Elizabeth Tranchina as General Counsel
Resorts World Las Vegas announces the appointments of Lou Dorn as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, and Elizabeth Tranchina as General Counsel. Together, they bring proven leadership across the gaming and hospitality industries and will oversee legal, regulatory, governance, and risk-related functions for the resort, helping to drive operational excellence and support long-term growth.
“Lou brings an exceptional depth of experience in gaming law and regulatory compliance that will be instrumental as we continue to grow and evolve,” said Jim Murren, Chairman of Resorts World Las Vegas. “His leadership will help ensure our operations remain forward-thinking, responsible and built on a strong legal foundation.”
Dorn’s distinguished career spans both public service and private-sector leadership. He comes to Resorts World from Bally’s Corporation, where he served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel – North America and oversaw legal operations for 19 casino and resort properties across the U.S., including online gaming and sports wagering platforms. Prior to that, he held executive legal roles at Monarch Casino & Resort, SLS Las Vegas, Aliante Casino and Hotel and the Las Vegas Hilton, where he led legal strategy, compliance programs and regulatory affairs.
Earlier in his career, Dorn served as Chief of the Corporate Securities Division for the Nevada Gaming Control Board and as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Nevada. In these roles, he helped shape and enforce gaming regulations and compliance for the state, gaining a comprehensive understanding of both Nevada gaming law and federal securities law.
“Joining Resorts World Las Vegas at such a dynamic time in its growth is an exciting opportunity,” said Dorn. “Having spent my career navigating the complexities of gaming law and regulatory compliance, I look forward to supporting the resort’s continued success by ensuring we operate with the highest standards of legal integrity and strategic governance.”
Resorts World Las Vegas also welcomes Elizabeth Tranchina as General Counsel. A seasoned legal counsel with more than 20 years of legal and regulatory compliance experience in the gaming and hospitality industry, Tranchina began her legal career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Gaming Division for the Louisiana Department of Justice. She most recently served as General Counsel for Investar Bank, headquartered in Louisiana, overseeing the legal operations for more than 20 branch locations across Louisiana, Texas and Alabama. Prior to that, she was General Counsel at Rio Hotel & Casino where she managed the legal, regulatory compliance and risk functions for the property. Tranchina has held senior leadership roles at publicly traded gaming, sports betting, and iGaming companies, overseeing legal and compliance matters across multiple jurisdictions.
“Elizabeth brings a steady, solutions-oriented mindset to complex legal challenges. Her experience across gaming and financial services adds valuable perspective to our leadership team, and her contributions will be instrumental as we continue to grow,” said Carlos Castro, President and Chief Financial Officer for Resorts World Las Vegas.
For more information about Resorts World Las Vegas, please visit rwlasvegas.com.
The post Resorts World Las Vegas Appoints Respected Industry Leaders Lou Dorn as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary; Elizabeth Tranchina as General Counsel appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
In today’s connected world, a single missed message can have a ripple effect far beyond its intended recipient. For high-volume messaging businesses, from fintech to e-commerce, reliability isn’t just a feature; it’s the foundation.
At CommsHub, we’ve seen how even the most robust communication strategies can fall apart when traffic isn’t managed intelligently. That’s why built-in failover isn’t an add-on for us, it’s at the very core of our platform architecture.
The Hidden Risk in Messaging at Scale
Sending a million messages is easy. Delivering a million messages on time without losses, delays, or duplicates is the real challenge.
Traditional messaging setups often rely on a primary route, with a manual backup plan in case of outages. The problem? Manual intervention takes time and every second loss increases the risk of failed conversions, missed verifications and frustrated customers.
For some sectors, a five-minute delay can mean thousands in lost revenue. For others, it can damage trust irreparably.
How Our Failover Works
CommsHub’s built-in failover system works like an automated traffic director.
- Real-Time Route Monitoring: Every active channel is monitored for delivery speed, message status and error rates.
- Instant Automatic Switching: If performance drops below a set threshold or a provider experiences downtime traffic is instantly redirected to the next best available route.
- Multi-Level Redundancy: We don’t just fail over once. Traffic can cascade through multiple backup routes until successful delivery is confirmed.
This means campaigns keep running without interruption, even when unexpected technical issues occur in the background.
The Numbers Behind It
In controlled environments, we’ve observed that our failover logic reduces message loss to near zero. While previously around 17% of messages were considered as lost or undelivered – while in reality, fallback mechanism saves them.
The architecture also ensures that when switching routes, there’s no spike in costs thanks to our intelligent routing engine, which considers provider pricing in real time.
Protecting Revenue and Reputation
The immediate benefit is obvious: you don’t lose communication with your audience. But the deeper value lies in protecting both revenue and reputation.
For high-volume businesses, the stakes are high:
A trading platform missing two-factor authentication codes risks losing active traders.
An e-commerce brand failing to deliver time-sensitive promotions risks wasted ad spend.
A fintech company delaying fraud alerts risks customer churn.
CommsHub’s failover was designed to address these risks without requiring extra integration work or manual monitoring.
Engineering for the Future of Messaging
We see failover not as a safety net, but as a structural pillar of next-generation communication platforms. As channels diversify and volumes grow, redundancy and intelligent routing will be as essential as delivery speed and analytics.
This is why we’ve invested heavily in creating an architecture that can evolve with market needs from adding new providers in days instead of weeks, to scaling traffic instantly during spikes.
The result? Businesses that can move faster, sleep easier and deliver messages with confidence.
In messaging, there’s no such thing as “just a delay.”
Every second counts and with built-in failover, those seconds are always on your side.
Meet Us at SBC Summit Lisbon 2025
We’ll be showcasing CommsHub’s next-generation messaging solutions at SBC Summit Lisbon 2025, from 16-18 September.
Visit us at Booth D181 to see how built-in failover can help your business deliver every message with confidence.
The post How CommsHub Built-In Failover Protects High-Volume Messaging Businesses appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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