UK Officials Warn Match-Fixing Growing More Sophisticated as Prediction Markets Draw Scrutiny

Senior Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) officials warned the House of Lords that match-fixing is becoming more complex while arguing the international treaty the U.K. is preparing to ratify is designed to remain effective as betting products, including prediction markets, evolve. They acknowledged that enforcement against the criminals orchestrating the schemes remains one of the biggest challenges in tackling match-fixing.

DCMS Director of Sports and Gambling Emma Floyd and Deputy Director of Sports Simon Mason gave evidence on July 21 to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee. 

The committee held its final public evidence session as part of its examination of the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, commonly known as the Macolin Convention. The U.K. signed the treaty in December 2018 but never ratified it. The government presented it to Parliament on June 4, 2026, beginning a scrutiny process that runs until October 12. 

Work to Do on Prosecuting the Ringleaders

Floyd opened by outlining the scale of the match-fixing threat. She stated it’s a “very serious threat to the integrity of sport, to public confidence, fair competition, but also the integrity of the regulated betting market.” 

Floyd noted that reports to the U.K. Gambling Commission’s Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) rose 28% between 2024 and 2025. Football and tennis accounted for much of the increase. 

She attributed this pattern to the global popularity of these sports and their large betting volumes, rather than systemic corruption within the sports. She said that manipulative activity is increasingly moving into the lower tiers of sport.

Floyd described how a modern match-fixing operation typically works, with the athlete, intermediary, betting location, sporting event venue, and source of the money often originating in different countries. This international structure makes it challenging for authorities to bring enforcement action in match-fixing cases.

The U.K. Gambling Commission (UKGC), the Sports Betting Integrity Forum, and the International Tennis Integrity Agency also highlighted this trend when they gave evidence to the committee last month. The findings echo Sportradar’s report that match-fixing activity is gradually diversifying beyond traditional European strongholds.

Floyd acknowledged that authorities still need to do much more to prosecute people at the top of match-fixing rings, even though intelligence sharing and prevention remain in “a good place.”

Prediction Markets Draw Committee Scrutiny 

Committee chair Lord Johnson of Lainston, who joined remotely, made the most industry-relevant intervention. 

He noted that prediction market platforms like Polymarket “are now enormous markets” and that authorities find them harder to track because the activity does not pass through conventional gambling operators.

Floyd argued that the treaty’s design future-proofs it. She said: 

Whoever wrote this was very smart about making it technology neutral, so however people go about placing the bets, whether that’s in the more modern prediction products, they’re all caught by it.”

This position aligns with the UKGC’s view that commercial prediction markets operating in the U.K. would meet the legal definition of gambling and require a license. The comments come as analysts forecast the sector will process well over $1 trillion in annual trading volume in 2026.

When discussing how authorities can disrupt supply from unlicensed operators, Floyd said enforcement must extend beyond simply blocking websites. Authorities also need to “look at other ways of tackling people’s ability to acquire customers, their ability to advertise, their ability to receive payments.” 

She noted that the UKGC’s toolkit includes cease-and-desist notices, disruption notices and referrals of URLs to search engines. 

Officials Explain Eight-Year Ratification Delay

Mason confirmed that the DCMS completed a full compliance assessment and concluded that the U.K.’s existing structures already satisfy the convention. Lord Stevenson of Balmacara pressed Mason on whether anything was “coming down the track” for sports bodies or operators, and Mason replied they would not face any additional requirements.

When asked why ratification had taken eight years, Floyd cited the pandemic and the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, which consumed departmental capacity. She also noted a major legal obstacle involving Malta’s challenge to the convention’s definition of illegal sports betting. 

Floyd said most jurisdictions, including the U.K., regulate betting based on where a wager is placed, while Malta licenses operators based on where they are established. She said the European Court of Justice has since ruled that Malta’s licensing model “doesn’t trump an individual country’s laws,” resolving a legal debate officials considered necessary before the U.K. could move forward. 

Of the 43 signatories, 17 have ratified the convention to date. Mason highlighted Australia and Morocco’s signatures as evidence that the convention reaches beyond the Council of Europe.

The committee expects to publish its report by the autumn, with its acting chair saying, “I know governments use words like autumn being very extensive, but I think we’re going to do it as soon as we can.” 

Questions Raised Over Illegal Gambling Funding

Lord Boateng, who declared his interest as vice president of the Lotteries Council, questioned where authorities would find the money for these enforcement efforts. 

Boateng noted that operator license fees will rise by 25% in October. He questioned whether the industry should contribute more toward enforcement, despite the UKGC receiving £26 million in Treasury funding over three years to combat illegal gambling. 

“People who run gambling outfits are going to have to find more money to pay for the enforcement, because why should the public pay? It’s their industry,” Boateng said.

While the hearing centered on ratifying the convention, much of the discussion focused on a broader challenge: how regulators keep pace with increasingly international match-fixing schemes and rapidly evolving betting products, including prediction markets. 

The evidence also underscored that, despite improvements in intelligence sharing and prevention, successfully prosecuting the organized crime groups behind sports manipulation remains one of the government’s biggest enforcement challenges.