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On 21 March 2025, representatives of the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency took part in a remote seminar organised by the Council of Europe, the International Olympic Committee and Interpol, the aim of which was to provide the countries that have recently signed or ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sporting Events (also known as the Macaulay Convention) with all the necessary information regarding the implementation of the Convention's provisions, and especially Article 13, which defines the establishment of a national platform to fight against manipulation in sport.
In addition to the Lithuanians, the seminar was also attended by representatives of the Belgian, Spanish, Romanian, Serbian and Swedish government, sports, law enforcement and gambling regulators.
The workshop focused on the risk management of match-fixing, practical issues of the platform implementation, and the implementation of a system for the prevention of this "cancer" of sport in each country.
"Perhaps the most important task in relation to match-fixing is to monitor and identify in a timely manner potential risks and threats to sport, sports organisations and athletes. At the same time, reducing or eliminating the causes, likelihood, impact or harm of risk events. The risk management model described in the workshop should include a risk "bank", risk identification, probability of occurrence, impact of risks, risk ranking, risk mapping, management and monitoring and, most importantly, a plan of risk management measures. I believe that meetings such as today's will help the national platform to prevent manipulation of sport competitions to function more effectively", says Kornelija Tiesnesytė, Advisor to the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency.
According to her, the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency, which acts as the national coordinator of the fight against manipulation of sport competitions, has already included the principles of risk management of manipulation in sport in the draft rules on combating manipulation in high-performance sport.
The remote seminar was attended by Kornelija Tiesnesytė, Adviser of the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency, Aleksandras Kavolenka, the Agency's representative for coordination of issues related to the manipulation of sport competitions, Zenonas Burokas, Prosecutor, Vaidotas Grikienis, Chief Investigator of the Pre-trial Investigation Coordination and Control Division of the Pre-trial Investigation Coordination and Control Department of the Lithuanian Criminal Investigation Bureau, Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, Agnė Vanagienė, Director of the Olympic Sports Directorate of the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee (LTOC), Saulius Ritter, LTOC Fair Sport Ambassador, Irma Venckuvienė, Chief Specialist of the Gambling Supervision Authority under the Ministry of Finance.
The Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sport Competitions entered into force on 1 September 2019.To date, 43 countries have signed and 14 countries have ratified it.
