Sports officials fear organised crime risks corrupting New Zealand athletes

Sport Integrity Commission CEO Rebecca Rolls said organised crime syndicates are eyeing up New Zealand sports for money laundering. Composite image / NZ Herald

• Organised crime syndicates are seeking to corrupt the integrity of New Zealand sport, according to officials, while the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned organised crime is moving into sport globally.
• New Zealand’s Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui is working with Interpol to try to protect the integrity of New Zealand sports codes.
• The commission has warned the Sports Minister the risk of corruption is growing.

Organised crime syndicates have New Zealand sports in their sights for money laundering, according to the country’s sports integrity body.

Rebecca Rolls, chief executive of the Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui (SIC) told the Herald our athletes and officials are potentially vulnerable to corruption by organised crime syndicates – with any sport that is streamed or broadcast potentially a target.

The SIC has discussions under way with overseas counterparts and policing experts – including Interpol – to try to protect our sporting landscape from corruption attempts.

This follows the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime voicing concern about global organised crime migrating into sports.

The SIC was created in 2024 on the recommendation of a government working group and was given the mandate to ensure everyone involved in sport and recreation in New Zealand is safe and fairly treated, and that activities are free of doping and corruption.

This was in response to a number of independent reviews of sporting bodies - both in New Zealand and overseas - that had uncovered bullying, abuse and other concerning behaviour.

In a briefing to incoming Sports Minister Mark Mitchell earlier this year, the commission outlined its plans and the challenges that it expected to face – including attempted corruption in New Zealand sport.

Sport is increasingly being targeted by money laundering operations. Photo / NZ Police

SIC chief executive Rebecca Rolls – a dual sporting international, former police detective and ex-general manager of Serious Fraud Office operations - told the Herald that sport was a ripe target for organised crime and money laundering as syndicates became more sophisticated and sought other ways to launder cash.

“Any sort of organised crime is profit-motivated,” Rolls said.

“The commodity can be drugs, it can be people, it can be sport; wherever there is an interest, organised crime will find itself.”

Rolls said while New Zealand was global population “small fry”, the country was still vulnerable to targeting by organised crime-backed betting syndicates.

Sport Integrity Commission chief executive Rebecca Rolls said organised crime rings are likely to target New Zealand sport. Photo / Brett Phibbs

She said our time zone makes us an attractive target because a lot of New Zealand sport is played and streamed at times when there isn’t much else to bet on.

“The unregulated gambling markets, which involve trillions of dollars, if anything is streamed, it is vulnerable to having betting placed on it,” she said.

Matches could be manipulated for bets placed with legal gambling providers and illegal gambling markets were controlled by organised crime syndicates.

Rolls said the commission believes trends overseas highlight how New Zealand athletes – at various levels – could be approached to become involved in competition manipulation.

“That translates itself into as an athlete [being asked] how much are you paid? Do you need a new pair of boots ... there are lots of different ways that people can get compromised and get involved in fixing,” she said.

“It doesn’t mean necessarily you are fixing a match to change the outcome or the result. It could just be a foul throw in the first 10 minutes or is the umpire going to wear a floppy hat or a cap.

“People will bet on anything.”

Basketball officials in New Zealand will remove any spectator who is relaying information courtside via a phone or tablet. Photo / 123rf

The sharing of team information – including injuries, teammates’ form and likely match conditions – was another area athletes, or those close to them, could be approached by organised crime-backed bookies about.

In the briefing document, the commission said it had already engaged with the Global Network of National Sport Integrity Agencies working group, Sport Integrity Australia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol about safeguarding the integrity of New Zealand sport.

It said there was “limited data available” on the size and scope of integrity issues in New Zealand.

“It is an area where we want to build partnerships with law enforcement both in New Zealand and internationally. We are already having discussions with some of our counterparts overseas about how we can grow that,” Rolls said.

Organised crime syndicates launder their proceeds of crime via sports betting.

While some sports here had “positive integrity cultures”, the briefing paper said “other organisations have no or limited understanding of their integrity risks and blind spots”.

Rolls told the Herald she didn’t believe New Zealanders “understand completely” how real the threat of match-fixing or issues that could impact the integrity of New Zealand sport was.

That included the ever-growing practice of “courtsiding” or “pitchsiding”; a practice of spectators within venues relaying information of incidents during games to people overseas, taking advantage of broadcasting time delays to manipulate betting.

Several spectators were evicted from the opening match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval for “courtsiding”.

Several spectators were evicted from the opening match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup at Hagley Oval for "courtsiding". Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand Cricket and Basketball New Zealand rules state anyone doing it at their domestic competitions is to be immediately evicted.

“You don’t have to go too far in summer sports to be in a grandstand somewhere and hear people communicating what is happening in a game to someone else,” Rolls said.

“New Zealand is very much a part of this.”

The commission’s briefing document to Mitchell listed competition manipulation as one of the biggest risks to the integrity of sport in New Zealand.

It said a focus of its work would be to work with other sports bodies (here and abroad) and law enforcement to “all aspects of threats to integrity”.

“Internationally, there is also growing concern about the infiltration of sport by organised crime, including the use of sports gambling to launder the proceeds of crime,” the document said.

Minister for Sports and Recreation Mark Mitchell has been given a briefing on the risks to the integrity of New Zealand sport. Photo / Marty Melville

“This can involve the corruption of athletes and other participants for match fixing and illegal sports betting. We believe New Zealand is potentially vulnerable in this area.”

Organised crime is shifting into sport - something that was highlighted in the Game Over report, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) late last year.

It highlighted illegal betting and match manipulation of some “lower-tier events and youth competitions”, which were “particularly vulnerable” because of lower surveillance from officials.

The United Nations investigators who authored the report called for “international collaboration” to try to combat money laundering and other impacts of organised crime on sport.

“The global nature of these illicit activities, as highlighted in the report, demands urgent and close international co-operation,” it said.

Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.

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