Australia is working on standardising match-fixing legislation with an ad hoc regime between states and territories proving ineffective at stamping out the criminal practise.
An influx of international athletes for major sporting events and a high volume of betting markets have made Australia a target, Sports Integrity Australia CEO Sarah Benson said.
"Whilst not widespread in Australia, the threat of match fixing to Australia is high," she told a parliamentary committee examining the issue in Canberra on Thursday.
Australia has set up a working group on match fixing for major sporting events and it will focus on the Asian Cup in March, as the federal government works on implementing an international treaty to crack down on corruption in sports.
The Macolin convention aims to stop match fixing and corruption by increasing information sharing between nations, curbing illegal betting markets that are often linked to organised crime and creating a common legal framework across jurisdictions.
While Australia signed up in 2019, it has yet to properly ratify or fully implement the treaty.
Global sports betting is hugely popular and there is little visibility over offshore markets, which makes it hard to spot when match fixing occurs in lower leagues, Sports Integrity Australia head of international relationships James Moller told the hearing.
"We can see betting markets on our amateur level sport, on our under-18s and below level sport," he said.
Gaps in state and territory laws meant offences might not apply across jurisdictions, limiting how offenders could be prosecuted, Mr Moller said.
He pointed to a previous match-fixing football scandal in Victoria organised by a crime syndicate.
"The match-fixing syndicate was based offshore, but the athletes were in Australia," he said, noting that the suspicious betting all came from overseas.
"So in that instance, police were able to take action, but due to the limitations of the legislation in that jurisdiction, they weren't able to target all of the offenders involved."
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