Ontario and Alberta say no to UFC betting, citing integrity concerns

The UFC has been slow to catch up to sports betting. The Ultimate Fighting Championship issued a tardy rule to its fighters, coaches, and general staff, prohibiting them from placing wagers on the promotion’s events, although it did not explicitly stop them from wagering on other sports, or even rival organization’s events.

While this decision was largely in line with expectations from a professional sports organization in the age of sports betting, not everyone is convinced that the UFC has truly cleaned up its act.

In fact, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario said last week that it is ordering regulated sportsbooks in the province to cease all markets on the UFC, because of a lack of compliance from the organization with the regulator’s betting integrity requirements, ESPN reported.

To add insult to injury, over the weekend, Alberta became the second province to follow suit and tell sportsbooks not to accept any wagers or offer any markets on UFC events. AGCO has insisted from the UFC to comply with the watchdog’s standards, which include a clear prohibition on betting by insiders and high standards insofar as the integrity of the promotion is concerned.

Ultimately, AGCO wants to make sure that the risk of match-fixing disappears. Despite the ban on betting announced by UFC Chief Business Director Hunter Campbell in October, AGCO is not at all convinced that all criteria have been met. In fact, the UFC does not prohibit insiders to bet on events, an official statement by the regulator said.

AGCO added that the regulator has collated sufficient evidence to mandate the suspension of markets. There have been recent incidents involving possible betting by UFC insiders and numerous suspicious betting patterns around the sport which have further raised red flags.

AGCO CEO and register Tom Mungham condemned those incidents and stressed the importance of the existing regulation and why it existed in the statement:

"The Standards exist to protect the betting public and to provide the necessary safeguards against odds manipulation, match-fixing, and other integrity issues."

Until such a time that the risks of insider betting remain high, AGCO would not allow any licensed sportsbook to accept wagers on the promotion. Mungham assured that AGCO will work with the OLG, the UFC, and other stakeholders to ensure that each event and league that wishes to have its games bet on first meets AGCO’s requirements.

Meanwhile, a fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke is currently under investigation for allegedly having been match-fixed.

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