#PROtectIntegrity
About the Campaign
PROtect Integrity Online
PROtect Integrity Online project is an Erasmus+ project co-funded by the European Union. It focuses on researching, developing, implementing and evaluating the best ways to deliver integrity education, particularly related to fighting match-fixing and corruption in sport. The project kicked off in February 2023 and continues until January 2025.
The project consortium is composed of 10 members, including 8 player associations representing 5 major team sports:
The first phase of the project consists of research tasks and concludes with a report on mapping and recommendations for education. Based on these recommendations and the partners’ output, online educational materials are created during the second phase. The third phase covers the implementation of education via team visits complemented by online materials and social media. Finally, education is evaluated, and good practices are put together into the Best Practice Booklet.
Overall, the match-fixing education is delivered by player associations to at least 5,800 athletes in Europe through the blended face-to-face and online approach.
The coordinator of the project.
The research institution
History
The current PROtect Integrity Online project has been a build-up of more than
a decade of relevant work on the issues of match-fixing that follows:
The current PROtect Integrity Online project has been a build-up of more than a decade of relevant work on the issues of match-fixing that follows:
In 2010, EU Athletes came together with the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) to form an innovative partnership to educate professional and elite athletes about the dangers of match-fixing. This cooperation has developed and led the way in sports betting integrity education. As a result, the first Code of Conduct for Athletes on sports betting issues was developed and published. This set the guidelines on sports betting integrity issues for professional and elite athletes and has been widely circulated, copied and adapted throughout sport.
In 2012, the educational partnership with the private betting operators EGBA, European Sports Security Association (ESSA) and Remote Gambling Association (RGA) was recognized and supported by the European Commission, who provided additional funding that allowed the education on match-fixing to expand across Europe.
The 2016 PROtect Integrity Erasmus+ project, which was co-financed by the European Commission and the private betting operators EGBA, ESSA and RGA, provided face-to-face education to nearly 15,000 European elite level and youth athletes in 11 countries (Denmark, Greece, France, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom) and at least in 10 different sports (basketball, cricket, cycling, football, Gaelic sports, handball, ice hockey, indoor football, rugby, water polo, individual sports). The education was supported by the creation of athlete-friendly key messages on posters, leaflets, through social media and the PROtect Integrity website.
PROtect Integrity Plus 2018, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, aimed to adapt and implement the Red Button App – a match-fixing reporting tool exclusively for athletes, previously developed by FIFPRO and the Finnish Football Players Association (JPY). PROtect Integrity Plus introduced the Red Button reporting app to professional athletes from 7 EU countries (UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain), and 5 different sports (rugby, basketball, handball, volleyball, futsal).
The new version of the app, adapted for the project partners, was rolled out in June 2018. During the course of the project, almost 2800 professional athletes across Europe downloaded the app, whilst 4700 players were provided with education on sport betting integrity, the dangers of match-fixing, the requirement to report anything suspicious and were instructed on how to use the Red Button App.
