Swedish state owned gaming company Svenska Spel has renewed its ongoing partnership with the Swedish Sports Confederation or Riksidrottsförbundet to continue involve people with sports and tackle match-fixing in sports.
Svenska Spel and Riksidrottsförbundet Extend Partnership
The Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) has had longtime strategic cooperation with Sweden’s state-owned gaming company, Svenska Spel. The partnership has spanned over ten years now.
This past May, the two bodies announced that they have agreed to extend their collaboration until the end of 2020 and have set a new end date for the agreement at the end of December. Following the deadline, the partnership will automatically renew for another two years. The deal will be expiring come December 31, 2022, should another agreement not be reached.
Svenska Spel paid the SSF to the tune of around $1.71 million when the two bodies extended their relationship in May, and Svenska Spel is ready to pay $4.87 million (SEK 42 million) for the two-year renewal. The cooperation will focus on analyzing ways to find new funding for Sweden’s different sports organizations and increasing efforts to detect and prevent match-fixing.
Match-fixing is monitored by full-time Svenska Spel employees at the SSF who, as part of the deal, are tasked with receiving anonymous tips relating to possible match rigging of sports events.
The SSF General Secretary, Stefan Bergh, says the renewed collaboration “enables efforts to reach more audience, counteract match-fixing, give association and associations the platform to continue to develop their activities in line with Strategy 2025.”
Charting a Course for the Future, Strategy 2025
The term Strategy 2025 means the vision developed by the SSF to expand “lifelong sports activity” options in Sweden. The aim is to get more people on board sports, starting with those at a very young age, and progress through different age groups.
The plan first came to light as a structured campaign in the summer of 2019. Further, the SSF has carried out several initiatives towards the Strategy 2025 goals, including the development of a Scholarship program.
Each year the Elite Sports Scholarship arm makes available around $5,800 (SEL 50,000) to 50 active athletes for their post-secondary education. Svenska Spel is doing its part to give sports a broad audience through some different programs and is the main sponsor of the Swedish Championship week each year in winter and summer games.
Svenska Spel President and CEO Patrik Hofbauer said that the latest partnership renewal with SSF is a pleasure. He added that sports are a fundamental part of Swedish society, and therefore Svenska Spell was pleased to work with the SSF and secure the necessary funds for the sports movement.