TUCSON, Ariz. - The anticipated expansion of sports wagering in the U.S. over the next several years will present significant integrity challenges to sports leagues, and, by extension, racing, as the activity migrates to more complex forms of betting and draws more attention, the keynote speaker at the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing said on Tuesday morning at the conference’s opening session. Jack Anderson, a professor of sports law at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said that the U.S. sports world will soon undergo a process he called “gamblification” due to the recent decision by the Supreme Court allowing states to legalize sports betting. The transition will make the U.S. the largest legal gambling market in the world by 2023, he predicted. But that process will also inevitably give rise to new attempts to fix matches and launder money through betting markets, a development that has already played out in countries where sports gambling has been legal for decades, Anderson said. As an example, Anderson pointed to the widespread match fixing that plagued the lower ranks of the world of professional tennis when, in the hopes of raising its profile in the sports world, the sport began selling match data to bookmakers and betting market-makers a decade ago. U.S. sports should be expected to face the same challenges, especially for matches that are well below the radar, Anderson said, noting that U.S. sports do not yet have good reputations for ensuring the integrity of their matches. “In most things [sports-related], America is ahead, maybe way ahead,” Anderson said. “But you’re behind in integrity.” :: Want to get the latest news with your past performances? Try DRF’s new digital PPs While Anderson was pointing specifically to non-racing sports during the vast majority of his presentation, racing is also expected to face new pressures to make sure its races are run on the up-and-up as the sport embraces fixed-odds wagering and bet exchanges, a development that is anticipated by most in racing as states legalize fixed-odds wagering on sports. As cheaters scour the betting markets for opportunities, it’s not impossible to believe their eyes may land on a race at an out-of-the-way racetrack, because the flowering of U.S. betting markets will attract more eyes from far more places. “These gambling crimes know no borders, and the U.S. will find that out quickly,” Anderson said. Anderson said that the most important tactic for regulators to embrace in the U.S. in the wake of widespread liberalization of sports wagering is cooperation among states (if, in the U.S., the regulation of sports betting is conducted on a state-by-state basis, rather than by the federal government, an open question right now). That also includes cooperation with other nations in which betting markets are legal. “The best you can do is make sure that those states that regulate betting cooperate and share information with each other,” he said. “Not just data, but information about people as well.” He also stressed that sports and racing need to develop the architecture and policies that will make whistle-blowers comfortable when coming forward. He said surveys that he has conducted among professional athletes show that most sports participants are highly reluctant to come forward with specific, credible information on fellow competitors. That recommendation has also been made countless times to U.S. racing interests by Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a non-profit company that runs drug-testing and integrity programs for the U.S. Olympic team. “Sport does whistle-blowing very, very poorly,” Anderson said. “Very poorly indeed.” Without taking a serious stance on protecting integrity, Anderson said, sports are doomed to financial ruin. “Nothing corrodes the commercial base of a sport quicker than corruption,” Anderson said. “You can slip very, very quickly.”