The issue of betting on sports competitions involving minors, one of the key topics at last week’s 10th meeting of the Group of Copenhagen under the Follow-up Committee of the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, attended by a Ukrainian delegation, has gained further attention in the international media.
Former Group of Copenhagen President and Coordinator of France’s National Platform for Sports Integrity Corentin Segalen and current Group of Copenhagen President and Coordinator of Sweden’s National Platform for Sports Integrity Samuel Wahlberg published an open letter, “Stop Betting on Kids”, calling on the international sports community to impose a complete ban on betting on children’s and youth sports competitions.
The authors stress that, despite legislative restrictions in several countries, illegal operators continue to make extensive use of youth tournaments for betting. According to the Group of Copenhagen’s Logbook monitoring system, reports of suspicious betting on matches involving athletes under the age of 18 increased from 21 cases in 2021 to 160 in 2025.
A Eurosport article by French journalist Philippe Auclair on betting on Women’s U17 European Championship matches also drew additional attention to the issue, providing examples of international betting platforms offering bets on matches involving underage female athletes.
During the Group of Copenhagen meeting, participants, including the Ukrainian delegation, also stressed the need to strengthen international coordination, improve monitoring mechanisms and develop a common approach to restricting betting on youth sports competitions.
Open letter by Corentin Segalen and Samuel Wahlberg, “Stop Betting on Kids”.