The European Sports Security Association has slammed the report that has involved Chelmsford City in a match-fixing claim.
ESSA, which represents the integrity interests of the majority of the major betting operators, including Ladbrokes, William Hill, bet365 and Paddy Power, have spoken out over the recent Federbet allegations.
Khalid Ali, ESSA Secretary General, said: "No one within the European regulated betting industry is aware of who Federbet are or what they represent; they claim to have 400 members but they haven't been listed on their website.
"They appear to be an organisation steeped in secrecy. At ESSA we have been working closely with national and transnational policy bodies such as the European Commission and Council of Europe on match-fixing for some time.
"ESSA members employ sophisticated internal security mechanisms to identify suspicious betting patterns and which importantly includes essential transactional data on who is betting on what, where and when.
"Whereas, Federbet appears to be primarily using betting odds movements as the principal means of detecting match-fixing. That approach is not conclusive and prone to false results.
"It is also important to remember that betting irregularities do not necessarily equate to corruption; ESSA's latest figures list 148 alerts which after detailed examination led to 30 suspicious cases. Furthermore, establishing corruption is a multi-sector partnership activity involving a widely understood protocol with sporting bodies and regulatory authorities, which Federbet is ignoring.
"Only in co-operation with those other stakeholders can full and proper investigations take place which can then determine whether corruption has occurred.
"ESSA has information sharing agreements with over 20 major sports bodies, such as FIFA and the IOC, as well as a number of national gambling regulators. This partnership approach has been particularly successful in driving the corruptors away from regulated markets, creating a safe and secure environment for customers. Assisting in the detection, deterrent and punishing corruption is the central aim of ESSA, but this must be based on firm evidence and thorough investigations.
"Promoting unfounded allegations can wreck careers and the confidence in both betting markets and sporting events with serious economic impacts. We are therefore very disappointed with the lack of professionalism Federbet is showing and as the comments from AAMS, ARJEL and the French La Ligue demonstrate, there are serious and widely-held concerns about the validity of the organisation's information. It is not often that you see such a range of differing stakeholders challenging an organisation's position in this fashion and that is telling in itself."
