PrOFS | Sportmanagement

Strategic Basic research funded by FWO

The negative impact of fraud in sports – all behaviours aimed to manipulate the outcome of a sports competition or abuse sports to gain financial and other advantages – has never been more manifest than today. Not only does fraud in sports undermines the attractiveness of sports as a multibillion business, it also threatens the integrity of sports and those involved. To enable sports to fully play its positive role in society (relating to such outcomes as the improvement of public health and social cohesion), fraud in sports has to be tackled in an integrated manner, uniting forces of many sports, public, and private organizations. However, current insights in the causes, consequences, and preventive measures of fraud in sports are fragmented, and (as a consequence) proposed reforms are at best only limitedly effective.

Given this context, the PrOFS project delivers an ambitious, state-of-the art, multidisciplinary scientific approach in preventing fraud in sports, thereby responding to calls of both academics and practitioners for a holistic framework. To this aim, the PrOFS project envisions a systemic change, enabled by the close collaboration of a broad range of leading scientists and the main stakeholders regarding the fight against fraud in sports in Flanders. For the first time, a multidisciplinary project is presented that not only investigates the complex nature of fraud in sports, but also uses scientific methods to develop and test practical tools (e.g. risk assessment, fraud in sports barometer, and crime proofing) and solutions (e.g. reforms of laws and regulations, moral education workshop, and tournament restructuring) in optimizing the fight against fraud in sports. Particular focus is put on those types of fraud in sports (i.e. match-fixing, human trafficking, bribery, and financial and social fraud, including money laundering) that are most strongly present, yet lack an integrated counter approach.

ProOFS: Prevention Of Fraud in Sports
Strategic basic research funded by FWO

Impact and objectives

Impact

A strong innovative part of the PrOFS project is that it is rooted in an urgent request from the field of sports (bottom-up) instead of originating from a perceived scientific need (top-down). This is also amply illustrated by the large and diverse set of organizations that have submitted letters of intent to collaborate in the PrOFS project. As a consequence, a large impact on the field of sports in Flanders (as part of the broader Belgian sport context) will be enabled. The above discussed activities will provide tools that will be of use for a wide range of different stakeholders in the field of sports. While some of the work packages zoom in on certain types of fraud and certain actions, our final work package will develop and present a holistic and integrated framework.

Objectives

1. The creation of a legal infrastructure that reduces chances of different kinds of fraud
2. The organization of sports competitions in a way that decreases the chances of fraud.
3. The build-in of sufficient control, systems, and checks in sports organizations to prevent fraud.
4. The development of a network or agency that can monitor and support prevention of fraud on a permanent basis.
5. The provision of measures (barometer) to government agencies to evaluate the prevention of fraud.
6. The moral education of sportspeople, coaches, and leaders in the sports sector.
7. The provision of tools to managers and board members of sports organizations to prevent fraud in an effective way.
8. The provision of a blueprint of an integrated anti-fraud system that applies to all sports on amateur and professional level and includes different types of fraud in sports.
9. The engagement of all stakeholders groups in sports to collaborate in the fight against fraud in sports.

Publications

Vanwersch, L., Willem, A., Constandt, B., & Hardyns, W. (2022). A Scoping Review of the Causes and Consequences of Fraud in Sport. Journal of Sports and Social Issues, 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/01937235221119811

Vanwersch, L., Willem, A., Constandt, B., & Hardyns, W. (forthcoming). The Methodological Outline of the Use of a Factorial Survey Design to Study Sport-Related Match-Fixing. In GERN Research Paper Series 8.(editors and book title unknown)

Hardyns, W., Vanwersch, L., & Constandt, B. (forthcoming). Should Football Care About Its Fans' Trust? A Study into the Consequences of a Large-Scale Fraud Scandal on Sports Fans' Integrity Perceptions. Managing Sports and Leisure.

Gotelaere, S., Paoli, L. (2022). Prevention and control of financial fraud: A scoping review. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. Springer Verlag.

Tissot, T., Van Hiel, A., Haerens, L., & Constandt, B. (2022). The moral identity questionnaire predicts prosocial behavior better than the Moral Identity Scale. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03361-y

Vandercruysse, L., Vermeersch, A., & Vander Beken, T. (2022). Macolin and beyond : legal and regulatory initiatives against match manipulation. INTERNATIONAL SPORTS LAW JOURNAL.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40318-021-00205-y

Fact Sheets

Scientific Research in a clear and summarizing fact sheet

A Scoping Review of the Causes and Consequences of Fraud in Sport

The Methodological Outline of the Use of a Factorial Survey Design to Study Sport-Related Match-Fixing

Vandercruysse L. and Baert M. (2022) Private bribery and match-fixing: not a perfect match

Hardyns W., Vanwersch L., & Constandt B. (2022). Should football care about its fans' trust? A study into the consequences of a large-scale fraud scandal on sports fans' integrity perceptions

Vandercruysse L., Vermeersch A. & Vander Beken T. (2022). Macolin and beyond_legal and re

Symposium #3

The third PrOFS Symposium took place on 13 October 2023, this time with (then) Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne. The state of play and most recent results were presented in plenary and can be found in the presentations below.

Also during this third symposium, an advisory committee was linked to round-table discussions. These covered four topics in depth: (1) Football Trafficking, (2) Competition Design & Planning, (3) E-learning for club administrators and (4) Moral Development of Athletes. The notes and conclusions of these roundtable discussions can also be found in the PDF below, after the slides of the plenary presentation. If interested, you can always contact Cleo Schyvinck or Bram Constandt.

WhatsApp Image 2023-10-16 at 14.16_edite

Symposium #2

On 26 October 2022, the second PrOFS Symposium and third Advisory Committee took place with Prof Dr Marjan Olfers as guest. The current state of affairs and most recent results were presented in plenary and can be found in the presentations below.

Also during this advisory committee in the afternoon, topics were discussed in depth in four different working groups: (anti-)fraud scan; competition planning; individual moral development; and laws and regulations. If you are interested, you can always contact Cleo Schyvinck or Bram Constandt.

3th Interim Advisory Committee

After the second advisory committee in January, the third advisory committee of the PrOFS project took place on March 29, as can be read in one of our news items .

The current status of research into an integrated approach to Fraud in Sport is briefly outlined in the slides from the plenary section below.

Substantive topics were discussed in depth in four different working groups within the advisory committee: (anti-)fraud scan; competition planning; individual moral development; and laws and regulations.

symposium #1

On September 16, the first results of the PrOFS project were presented by the research team at the public PrOFS Symposium. The slides from the plenary part can be found below.