Monaco signs the Council of Europe Convention of Magglingen/Macolin on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (CETS No. 215)

On 3 November 2026, the Principality of Monaco signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (CETS No. 215, known as Macolin Convention) which aims to prevent and punish fraud in sport.

Contents of the Macolin Convention

The Macolon Convention sets out standards and principles to prevent, detect and punish the manipulation of sports competitions, wich is defined as "an intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sports competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sports competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others."

It promotes national and international cooperation by involving stakeholders in the fight against manipulation of sports competitions: public authorities, sports organisations, competition organisers and sports betting operators.

The Parties to the Convention must implement the following measures:

Prevention, co-operation measures and measures relating to the financing of sports organisation, and the regulation of sports betting

• Domestic co-ordination: encourage sports organisations, competition organisers and sports betting operators to co-operate in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions and, where appropriate, entrust them to implement the relevant provisions of the Convention.
• Risk assessment and management: identify, analyse and assess the risks associated with the manipulation of sporting competitions; to encourage sports organisations, sports betting operators, competition organisers and any other relevant organisations to adopt procedures and rules to combat the manipulation of sporting competitions.
• Education and awareness raising: promote awareness-raising, education, training and research to strengthen the fight against manipulation of sports competitions.
• Sports organisations and competition organisers: encourage them to adopt and implement rules to combat the manipulation of sports competitions, and principles of good governance (prevention of conflicts of interest, compliance with contractual and other obligations, reporting of suspicious activity); ensure enhanced and effective monitoring of the conduct of sporting competitions at risk of manipulation; inform the public authorities without delay of any suspicious activity; protect whistleblowers; raise awareness amongst those involved in competitions, particularly young athletes, of the risk of manipulation; appoint the relevant officials for a sporting competition as late as possible, particularly judges and referees; apply sanctions and disciplinary measures and ensure the mutual recognition and enforcement of sanctions imposed by other sporting organisations, particularly in other countries.
• Financing of sports organisations: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure adequate transparency in the funding of sports organisations; withhold financial support from competition stakeholders sanctioned for manipulating sports competitions, for the duration of the sanction; where appropriate, withhold some or all financial or other sportrelated support from any sports organisations that do not effectively apply regulations for combating manipulation of sports competitions.
• Betting regulatory authority or other responsible authority or authorities: identify one or more responsible authorities, which in the domestic legal order are entrusted with the implementation of sports betting regulation and with the application of relevant measures to combat the manipulation of sports competitions in relation to sports betting.
• Sports betting operators: to adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to prevent conflicts of interest and the misuse of inside information by natural or legal persons involved in providing sports betting products, and to oblige sports betting operators to report irregular or suspicious betting to the relevant authorities without delay; encourage sports betting operators, and through them, the international organisations of sports betting operators, to raise awareness among their owners and
  employees of the consequences of and the fight against manipulation of sports competitions,
  through education, training and the dissemination of information.
• Fight against illegal sports betting: explore the most appropriate means to fight operators of illegal sports betting and consider adopting measures, in accordance with applicable domestic law (closing down or restricting remote access to operators and closing down operators with a physical network; blocking financial flows between operators and consumers; banning advertising; raising consumer awareness of the risks associated with illegal sports betting).

Exchange of information

• Exchange of information between competent public authorities, sports organisations and sports betting operators: facilitate, at national and international levels and in accordance with its domestic law, exchanges of information between the relevant public authorities, sports organisations, competition organisers, sports betting operators and national platforms.
• National platform: designate a national platform addressing manipulation of sports competitions which, in accordance with domestic legislation: serves as an information hub; coordinates the fight against the manipulation of sporting competitions; receives, centralises and analyses information on irregular and suspicious bets placed on sports competitions and issues alerts; transmit information on possible infringements of laws or sports regulations referred to in the Macolin Convention to public authorities or to sports organisations and/or sports betting operators; and co-operate with all organisations and relevant authorities at national and international levels, including national platforms of other States.
• Personal data protection : compliance by public authorities and organisations covered by the Macolin Convention with the principles of lawfulness, adequacy, relevance and accuracy, data security and the rights of data subjects when collecting, processing and exchanging data; ensuring that the exchange of data for the purposes of the Macolin Convention does not go beyond what is strictly necessary to achieve the stated aims of the exchange; provide the requisite technical means to ensure the security of the data exchanged and to guarantee their reliability and integrity, as well as the availability and integrity of the data exchange systems and the identification of their users.

Substantive criminal law and co-operation with regard to enforcement

• Criminal offences relating to the manipulation of sports competitions: ensure that the domestic laws enable to criminally sanction manipulation of sports competitions when it involves either coercive, corrupt or fraudulent practices, as defined by the domestic law.
• Laundering of the proceeds of criminal offences relating to the manipulation of sports competitions: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to establish as criminal offences under the domestic law the conduct as referred to in Article 9(1) and (2) of the Council of Europe Convention of 16 May 2005 on money laundering, the identification, tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime, and the financing of terrorism (CETS No. 198), Article 6(1) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime of 15 November 2000 or Article 23(1) of the United Nations Convention against Corruption of 31 October 2003), under the conditions referred to therein, when the predicate offence giving raise to profit is one of those referred to in Articles 15 and 17 of the Macolin Convention and, in any event, in the case of extortion, corruption and fraud; consider including the manipulation of sports competitions in the money laundering prevention framework by requiring sports betting operators to apply customer due diligence, record keeping and reporting requirements.
• Aiding and abetting: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to establish as criminal offences under the domestic law, when committed intentionally, the aiding and abetting of the commission of any of the criminal offences referred to in Article 15 of the Macolin Convention.
• Corporate liability: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that legal persons can be held liable for offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention, committed for their benefit by any natural person, acting either individually or as a member of an organ of the legal person, who has a leading position within the legal person; when lack of supervision or control by a natural person referred to in paragraph 1 has made possible the commission of an offence referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Convention for the benefit of that legal person by a natural person acting under its authority. This is without prejudice to the criminal liability of the natural persons who committed the offence.

Jurisdiction, criminal procedure and enforcement measures

• Jurisdiction: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to establish jurisdiction over the offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention where that offence is committed in its territory; or on board a ship flying its flag; or on board an aircraft registered under its law; or by one of its nationals or by a person habitually residing in its territory (the Party may enter reservations); in cases in which an alleged offender is present on its territory and cannot be extradited to another Party on the basis of his or her nationality.
• Measures to secure electronic evidence: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to psecure electronic evidence, inter alia through the expedited preservation of stored computer data, expedited preservation and disclosure of traffic data, production orders, search and seizure of stored computer data, realtime collection of traffic data and the interception of content data, in accordance with the domestic law, when investigating offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention.
  
• Protection measures: consider adoption of necessary legislative or other measures to provide effective protection for persons who provide, in good faith and on reasonable grounds, information concerning offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention or otherwise co-operate with the investigating or prosecuting authorities; witnesses who give testimony concerning these offences;
  when necessary, when necessary, family members of the aforementioned persons.

Sanctions and measures

• Criminal sanctions against natural persons: adopt the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention, when committed by natural persons, are punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions (monetary sanctions, penalties involving deprivation of liberty that may give rise to extradition).
• Sanctions against legal persons: as above (financial penalties, temporary or permanent disqualification from exercising commercial activity; placement under judicial supervision; judicial winding-up order).
• Administrative sanctions: adopt, where appropriate, the necessary legislative or other measures to punish infringements established in accordance with the Macolin Convention by effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and measures following proceedings brought by the administrative authorities, where the decision may give rise to proceedings before a court having jurisdiction.
• Seizure and confiscation: take the necessary legislative or other measures to permit seizure and confiscation of the goods, documents and other instruments used, or intended to be used, to commit the
  offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention; the proceeds of those offences, or property of a value corresponding to those proceeds.

International co-operation in judicial and other matters

• Measures with a view to international co-operation in criminal matters: for the purposes of investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings concerning the offences referred to in Articles 15 to 17 of the Macolin Convention, including seizure and confiscation.
• Other international co-operation measures in respect of prevention: endeavour to integrate, where appropriate, the prevention of and the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions into assistance programmes for the benefit of third States.
• International co-operation with international sports organisations.
  

Convention Follow-up Committee

• Functions: responsible for the follow-up to the implementation of the Macolin Convention, it may in particular make recommendations to the Parties concerning measures to be taken for the purposes
  of this Convention, in particular with respect to international co-operation; following the publication of explanatory documentation and, after prior consultations with representatives of sports organisations and sports betting operators; keep relevant international organisations and the public informed about the activities undertaken within the framework of the Macolin Convention; arrange meetings of experts; and carry out on-site visits in States Parties.

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International conventions on sports law to which Monaco is a party:

— COUNCIL OF EUROPE

• Anti-Doping Convention, done at Strasbourg on 16 November 1989 (ETS No. 135), Additional Protocol concluded in Warsaw on 12 September 2002 (ETS No. 188)
  
• Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and Other Sports Events of 3 July 2016 (STCE No. 218)

— UNESCO

• International Convention against Doping in Sport of 19 October 2005