"It is a big threat ... even bigger than doping because of the perception it leaves in the minds of the public," said Detlev Zenglein, analyst for the Early Warning System set up by Fifa to monitor betting patterns. "Every time there are rumors it sticks in people's heads and lessens their enthusiasm for sport. They think they might have been cheated."

According to EWS officials, illegal betting could account for more than US$100 billion (HK$780 billion) of an estimated US$350 billion revenue generated by gambling worldwide.

"That's the general industry reckoning for how much revenue was collected in the illegal Asian betting markets this year," EWS strategy head Wolfgang Feldner said.

"Our main fight is against those markets. In Europe the industry is highly regulated ... We have to make the public aware though that in Asia there is something going on that attacks the integrity of the sport."

According to congress speakers, the biggest difficulty lies in connecting unusual betting patterns with actual attempts to rig results.

"We have had more than 25 Uefa- organized matches in the last two seasons that were very likely manipulated but the investigations are still ongoing," said Carsten Koerl, chief executive of bet monitoring firm Sportradar.

EWS officials said they had seen no evidence of irregular betting at the 2006 World Cup or in any qualifying games for the 2010 edition.

International Olympic Committee ethics commission secretary Paquerette Girard Zappelli told the congress there had also been no sign of unusual gambling during this year's Beijing Games where EWS monitored betting traffic.

President Sepp Blatter said Fifa would work with the betting industry to safeguard football's values but also warned against scaremongering, citing recent allegations of match-rigging at the World Cup.

"It was written and said there was match-fixing without one item of evidence," Blatter said. "We are prepared to fight for clean, proper and fair sport but we cannot stand people abusing football or using it as a platform to spread new scandals when there are none."

REUTERS

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