“Manipulation of sports competitions” means an intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sports competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sports competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others.

Athletes, athlete support personnel participating in sports competitions, sports officials must perform their sports, professional and official duties in an honest manner, not to abuse them, not to disclose and not to use in any other way exclusive sports information, except cases established by law, to refrain from the implementation of illegal decisions or instructions of management and from the satisfaction of proposals of other persons that may unlawfully affect the course or results of official sports competitions.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the phenomenon of manipulating sports results has been strongly observed. The increase of manipulation cases involves two more specific elements. First, the proliferation of various types of available betting has created betting options easy to manipulate but also manipulations that are more complex to be detected. Secondly, a large illegal market is developing, which has attracted organized crime groups, seeking to manipulate sports competitions available to betting.

Every year in the world are betting $ 2 trillion on sports, 85% of which are illegal stakes in unregulated markets related to organized crime (The Economist, 2018).

Manipulation of sports competitions is a challenge to the rule of law, as it involves fraud, organized crime and corruption. It is also a threat to the future of sport, as its integrity and fair play are questioned.