January’s 2026 ICE Conference took place at an expansive convention centre in Catalonia, located several miles from Camp Nou, home to FC Barcelona, one of the world’s most accomplished soccer clubs.
When the World Cup returns to the US for the first time in three decades, it will be the first time that the world’s most popular sports event will be held on US soil since the historic 2018 PASPA decision.
As the countdown to the World Cup nears the 100-day mark, regulators, integrity officials and law enforcement are working to protect the tournament from threats posed by illegal betting syndicates. Among others, members of the Spanish National Police, a leading governing body and an integrity monitor, warned of some of the threats during the recent ICE conference.
With the World Cup’s expansion to 48 teams for the first time, the new format will add 40 matches to the six-week tournament. The combination of added matches and new bettors from first-time participants has led to projections for increased wagering volume. But the first World Cup in the US since 1994 has also generated substantial integrity concerns.
Three West Coast sites are a short flight from Las Vegas, where a notorious bookmaker operated an illegal wire room during the 2014 World Cup. The facility, located in a Caesars Palace suite, accepted approximately $400 million in wagers on the tournament, the US Justice Department alleged.
While match manipulation in soccer is less prevalent in North America than abroad, the MLS suspended former Colorado Rapids midfielder Max Alves in 2023 amid his purported association with a Brazilian match-fixing gang. According to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Alves allegedly received approximately $9,000 to receive a yellow card in an MLS match.
Mitigating integrity risks at the World Cup
A panel on the final day of the ICE conference focused on intensive efforts aimed at mitigating illegal gambling risks during the World Cup.
Silvia Paleari, director of public affairs at the International Betting Integrity Association, spoke extensively on the resources available to operators in emerging nations that could be vulnerable to an integrity breach. Paleari noted that those operators still receive access to IBIA’s Global Monitoring and Alert Programme, while adding that “without integrity” there is “no market” for regulated sports betting.
She was joined by Graciela Garay, who serves as director of ethics, compliance and integrity at CONMEBOL, the governing body for South American soccer. Following the panel, Garay said in a brief interview with iGB that she has been pleased with collaboration among prosecutors, sports leagues, operators and law enforcement agencies in combatting match fixing on the global level.
“Definitely, we’re developing preventive actions, education, workshops and follow-up issues. The CONMEBOL is committed with this transparency in fighting match fixing,” Garay said.
Garay believes the threat of match fixing is lower at a high-profile event such as the World Cup in comparison with less visible matches in lower division soccer.
“The World Cup is a lower-risk tournament. We will have a monitoring group where we will do a risk analysis of the tournament,” Garay told iGB, adding that the group will convene for a final review in May, weeks before the opening kickoff.
Common goals from global law enforcement agencies
Integrity concerns are less common in the US than across the Atlantic, where European soccer has been beset by several scandals in the past few years.
Most recently, the English Football Association cleared former West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta of spot-fixing charges but found him guilty of failure to comply with a lengthy gambling investigation. Paqueta denied the rigging accusations.
During the last six months, integrity concerns spiked in the US as federal prosecutors indicted athletes from the NBA, college basketball and MLB in separate cases. Separately, MLS recently signed a partnership with Polymarket designating the company as the official prediction market of the league. Detractors of event contracts have argued that the new asset class is vulnerable for integrity exploitation due to the lack of proper safeguards.
Back in the US, approximately 90 integrity officials gathered in Miami last month for a global betting integrity seminar. The event served as the final installation of the Fifa Global Integrity Programme before North America hosts the World Cup in June. The series has featured appearances by officials from the FBI, Interpol, the United Nation’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Europol, among other law enforcement agencies.
Guardrails against money laundering
On Capitol Hill, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee referenced a study from the UNODC during a 2024 hearing on sports betting. In a letter to the US Justice Department, she cited the UNODC’s estimates that about $140 billion is laundered annually through illegal and unregulated sport betting.
Blackburn is urging the department to examine the nexus between illegal betting and organised crime during the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
At last month’s seminar, Ronan O’Laire of the UNODC informed the audience on the missteps that can occur when interagency cooperation breaks down.
“Integrity fails when systems work in isolation, it succeeds when sports league bodies, police and prosecutors align early,” O’Laire wrote on LinkedIn.