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OC agrees deal with Betfair to monitor betting

The International Olympic Committee yesterday agreed a deal with Betfair to exchange information about irregular betting patterns on Olympic sport.

Coming into effect in time for next month's Games in Beijing, the agreement means the IOC will for the first time be able to request the identities of account holders who bet suspiciously. As Betfair is the world's largest betting exchange, yesterday's deal is a significant addition to what the IOC already holds with EWS, the early-warning system of betting that is a Fifa subsidiary. But EWS offers no access to private data, unlike the memorandum of understanding signed yesterday with Betfair.

The IOC, having in the past tried to prohibit all gambling activity on Olympic sport, changed tack after discussions with sports-integrity experts such as cricket's anti-corruption commissioner, Lord Condon. Weighing up the fraud threats posed by result-fixing in sport, the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, set in train plans to tackle corruption during an executive committee meeting last December. Yesterday's decision comes at a time when the IOC has decamped to the capital of a nation whose annual gambling turnover reportedly amounts to £50bn.

All competitors, coaches, officials and journalists who attend the Games must also for the first time sign documents binding them not to bet on Olympic sport. Yesterday's decision provides the IOC with far more detailed powers of inquiry than it has ever had in the past.