Australian Senate Committee Recommends Criminalising Match-Fixing in Australia

On 2 October 2026 the Australian Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee tabled its report on the Criminal Code Amendment (National Sport Integrity Offences) Bill 2026 (Cth) (the Bill).

The Senate committee recommended the Bill be passed without amendment.

If enacted, the Bill will insert a new Part 10.10 into the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (Criminal Code). It will create seven offences targeting match-fixing, sports corruption and the misuse of inside information. The Bill is intended to remedy gaps and inconsistencies in existing state and territory laws and address cross-border enforcement issues. The Bill will supplement rather than replace the existing legislative regime, and Sport Integrity Australia has confirmed that state and territory law enforcement will retain primacy for their respective jurisdictions. 

History 

Australia has been working towards a nationally consistent match-fixing regime for more than a decade. In 2011, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments adopted the National Policy on Match-Fixing in Sport and committed to pursuing a consistent approach to criminal offences. In 2018, the Wood Review recommended national match-fixing legislation and that Australia become a party to the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (Macolin Convention). 

The Macolin Convention is a multilateral treaty designed to prevent, detect and sanction the manipulation of sporting competitions, whether the conduct occurs domestically or across borders.

The Australian government signed the Macolin Convention in 2019 and committed to establishing Commonwealth match-fixing offences, but the proposed legislation did not eventuate. Seven years later, the Bill represents an important step towards strengthening Australia’s response to match-fixing and aligning it with international efforts to protect sports integrity.  

What Does the Bill Do?

The Bill will insert a new Part 10.10 into the Criminal Code and create seven offences intended to implement key criminal-law obligations under the Macolin Convention:

1. Corrupting a sporting event;
2. Inducing the corruption of a sporting event;
3. Soliciting corruption of a sporting event;
4. Altering, destroying or concealing corrupt conduct information;
5. Using or communicating corrupt conduct information;
6. Possessing corrupt conduct information with intent to use or communicate it; and
7. Using or communicating inside information.

Key Features

The offences apply broadly across sport, including esports.

They are not confined to betting-related match-fixing. Conduct intended to improperly influence a sporting outcome may be criminal even where no gambling is involved.

The offences will operate nationally. The Bill also contains provisions extending their international reach, some of which will commence only when the Macolin Convention enters into force for Australia, reflecting the reality that match-fixing can involve overseas participants and organised crime groups.

The prosecution need not prove that the sporting outcome was ultimately altered or that the intended benefit or detriment materialised, although each physical and fault element of the relevant offence must still be established.

Constitutional Basis 

Because the Commonwealth does not have a general power to legislate about sport or criminal law, each match-fixing offence must be connected to a head of legislative power in the Constitution. The Bill therefore includes "constitutional application provisions" which act as jurisdictional gateways. 

For match-fixing offences, the Commonwealth can legislate where the conduct or sporting event has a connection to:

• Corporations power: for example, where a sporting league or governing body is a corporation; 
• Trade and commerce power: where the activity relates to interstate or international commerce; 
• Communications power: where phones, text messages, email, social media or other communications services are used; 
• Territories power: where conduct or events occur in a territory; and 
• Nationhood power: where Australia is represented as a nation in the sporting event.

The Senate committee noted that, once Australia ratifies the Macolin Convention, the offences will also be supported by the external affairs power, because the legislation implements Australia's treaty obligations.

Penalties

The maximum penalty depends on the offence and ranges from three to 10 years’ imprisonment. The most serious offences—including corrupting a sporting event; inducing or soliciting that corruption, and altering, destroying or concealing corrupt conduct information—carry a maximum term of 10 years. This relates to: 

• Individuals: imprisonment, a fine, or both may be imposed, subject to the maximum for the relevant offence; and
• Corporations: financial penalties apply instead of imprisonment and may be calculated by reference to annual turnover under the general Commonwealth penalty regime. 

The information-related offences carry lower maximum terms, including three years’ imprisonment for possessing corrupt conduct information with intent to use or communicate it and for using or communicating inside information.

Comment

The breadth of some of the Bill’s definitions is likely to attract debate. The Bill provides that conduct “corrupts” a sporting event if it:

• Affects, or is likely to affect, the outcome of the sporting event, including any related review or appeal; and
• Is contrary to the standards of integrity that a reasonable person would expect of someone in a position to affect that outcome.

This is a broad definition and is consistent with the concept of sports manipulation in Article 3 of the Macolin Convention. It extends beyond the laws in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, which generally require an intentional connection between the manipulation and betting. Queensland does not require a betting connection, but its offence is limited to conduct intended to obtain a financial benefit or cause financial harm and is therefore still narrower than the Bill.

The broader definition may create uncertainty at the boundary between legitimate sporting strategy and criminal manipulation. The Bill's Explanatory Memorandum seeks to address this concern. It states that strategic decisions—such as resting players before finals or deliberately losing to improve draft position—are not intended to be caught. The offences also require proof of an intention to obtain a benefit, avoid a detriment or cause a detriment, which provides a further safeguard.

There are, however, sound reasons for adopting a broader approach. Match manipulation can extend beyond professional and semi-professional competitions into community and junior sport, where there may be no regulated Australian betting market. An offence tied to betting would leave parts of the sporting landscape outside the reach of criminal sanctions. The Bill instead targets the manipulation of sporting competitions themselves, whether or not wagering is involved. By focusing on the corrupt conduct, it may also reduce the need for investigators to trace betting profits through offshore arrangements and foreign accounts. This should make it easier to investigate and prosecute match-fixing, particularly where organised crime groups operate across borders.

Conclusion 

Match-fixing is increasingly transnational and sophisticated. It can involve organised crime groups, offshore betting markets, international athletes and cross-border financial flows. Australia’s domestic criminal laws cannot, by themselves, address all of those dimensions. The Bill is an important step towards closing gaps in the current framework and supporting Australia’s proposed ratification and implementation of the Macolin Convention.

The new laws contemplated by the Bill have the potential to impact a wide range of sporting organisations and their partners, all of whom should carefully review their integrity policies now before the Bill becomes law.