A leading expert in the fight against corruption in sports has warned that China’s vision of transforming its sports industry into a key part of the economy "is under threat from rampant illegal gambling," according to James Porteous of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST.
The mainland’s State Council issued a "guideline" -- read order -- in '14. One of its key forecasts/commands "was that the country’s sports economy" would be worth 5T yuan ($770B) by '25 -- a 15-fold increase.
Entrepreneurs "have rushed to get involved in sports." The "massive spending spree" on footballers by Chinese Super League clubs this winter "is perhaps where the impact of this rush to get on the sports gravy train has been most evident, but Chinese companies of widely varying sizes have been snapping up rights to events all over the world, investing in or buying foreign teams, sponsoring competitions, signing partnerships with sports governing bodies, etc."
Concerns over a hard landing for China’s economy "do not seem to have dissuaded them -- quite the opposite in fact, with many apparently keen to diversify from their primary businesses." Int'l Centre for Sport Security Exec Dir Chris Eaton, however, said the country’s gambling black market "could be a massive anchor on all those hopes of economic lift-off." He said, "China remains the single largest sport betting nation in the world, almost all of it strictly illegal and therefore unregulated."
BETTING THE DRIVING FORCE: ICSS estimates China’s illegal gambling market as worth $600B a year -- not far off the State Council’s 5T yuan forecast for the country’s entire legal sports economy in '25. Eaton: "So long as sport betting in China stays illegal and essentially invisible to serious authority, the vulnerability of the Chinese market to corruption, and therefore to facilitating match-fixing internationally, will remain." Gambling in China "is strictly illegal apart from sports lotteries, except in Special Administrative Regions Macau and Hong Kong." But even in those two cities illegal betting "is rampant," with Patrick Jay, former director of trading at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, estimating illegal turnover in Hong Kong to be worth HK$500B. The ICSS estimates that 85% of the Chinese sports betting market "is illegal." While Eaton "hailed China’s efforts to revitalise the sports economy, he warned that such massive figures could not be ignored." Eaton: “This enormous and laudable investment [into China’s sports industry] must be actively protected from ethical compromise. Assuming wealth alone will protect you from corruption is a fools’ paradise." Eaton lauded China’s anti-corruption clampdown -- which has heavily impacted Macau’s gambling-based economy -- but warned that betting remained the “driving force” behind corruption in sport (SCMP, 3/7).
