Association of Spanish Footballers Teams up With Spain’s Gambling Authority to Protect Integrity of Betting in Nation

The General Gambling Authority of Spain (Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego – DGOJ) has welcomed the Association of Spanish Footballers (Asociación de Futbolistas Españoles – AFE). In reality, the AFE has been introduced by DGOJ to the Global Betting Market Research Service (SIGMA) in order to track betting integrity. With the agreement in place, AFE can now use detailed data flows to report instances of questionable wagers made on a range of sports events.

The DGOJ went on to state that the service complies with Law 13/2011 of May 27 (its ninth additional provision), which regulates gaming and attempts to make it harder for people to commit fraud in the sports betting industry and stop betting competition manipulation.

The Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs also praised DGOJ’s efforts to uphold the principles of the fair competition earlier last year in a report that revealed 30 online gambling companies had paid a total of €71 million in fines in the first half of 2023; 14 operators, most with their headquarters in Curaçao (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given that many of online operators offering best betting bonuses are licensed precisely on this Caribbean island), were fined €5 million apiece and suspended for two years, according to a report outlining the sanctions for the “most serious infractions”. The remaining 16 operators with licenses under Spanish laws received fines ranging from €25,000 to €105,000 for different noncompliance violations. To protect the integrity of betting in Spain, AFE joins DGOJ.

Spanish Football Federation Signs with SIGMA Before AFE

This comes after the DGOJ and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (Real Federación Española de Fútbol – RFEF) established an agreement for the latter to also join SIGMA, which was back in November. At the event, Pedro Rocha, head of the RFEF Management Commission, stated that fighting sports betting fraud “is protecting football”.

With AFE’s adherence to this agreement, DGOJ has celebrated that it’s a significant advancement in the battle against phenomena that pose a major danger to the principles of fairness and fair play that are fundamental to sports.