Katie Simmonds Highlights the Importance of Sport Integrity in Brazil

During the SIGA Summit on Female Leadership in Sport – Brazil Edition, held in São Paulo on 12 May, SBC Notícias Brasil spoke with Katie Simmonds, Global COO of SIGA and Chair of SIGA Women.

In the interview, Simmonds outlined SIGA’s strategic priorities for Brazil and addressed the major challenges of promoting sport integrity in a still-developing regulatory environment. She emphasized the importance of engaging more women and brands through the SIGA Women programme, which currently includes 15 mentors from Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Read the interview in Portuguese

Check the translation below

 

Katie Simmonds, SIGA: Sport Integrity in Brazil

By Elisa Marcante – June 5, 2025

SBC Notícias Brasil attended the SIGA Summit on Female Leadership in Sport – Brazil Edition, organized by the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), in partnership with SIGA LATIN AMERICA and SIGA Women, held on May 12 in São Paulo.

During the event, the outlet spoke with Katie Simmonds, SIGA’s Global Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Chair of SIGA Women.

In addition to highlighting SIGA’s primary goals for the Brazilian market, Simmonds addressed the major challenges in ensuring sport integrity in an emerging and still-developing market like Brazil.

She noted that the event takes place in various locations around the world, including Dubai and New York. The inaugural edition in Brazil is closely linked to SIGA LATIN AMERICA, the organization’s regional branch, which has an office in São Paulo.

Simmonds also mentioned that the SIGA Women programme includes around 15 global mentors from Brazil and other Latin American countries. The event was designed to attract more women and brands to the initiative.

“My ambition is to grow [SIGA Women]. I’m not satisfied with the number we have today, which is 300 women. Why not turn that into 1,000 or 10,000? For that, we need sponsors to join us,” said Simmonds, explaining the importance of the organization having a strong presence in Brazil.

When asked about the event’s impact on the Brazilian online betting market, she confirmed that SIGA LATIN AMERICA currently has 20 companies from the sector as members. With industry regulation progressing in the country, these companies are now required to be associated with global sport integrity bodies such as SIGA.

One of Simmonds’ goals, as she revealed during the interview, is to create a dedicated panel on sport integrity in the online betting market for the next edition of the event.

She also aims to bring more female athletes into the programme’s agenda:

“Women’s sports competitions are not immune to sports betting — in fact, they are probably even more vulnerable,” she stated.

Simmonds already introduced this topic during the New York edition of the event, which featured prominent figures in women’s sport — a format she plans to replicate in Brazil.

Like other global sport integrity organizations, SIGA aims to prevent corruption in sport, including match-fixing, through effective information sharing and strong coordination both in Brazil and internationally.

She also shared that SIGA is in contact with regulators, operators, sports entities, and government authorities to implement the SIGA Universal Standards on Sport Integrity. Regarding the online betting industry, SIGA seeks to act as the independent organization that helps define these standards and issue certifications.

Sport Integrity and Betting Advertising

“I think it’s all about educational programmes,” said the COO, highlighting the importance of considering “consumers, fans, the younger generation, and the athletes themselves” — and how to protect them from match-fixing and related risks.

One of SIGA’s global solutions specialists is tasked with listening to the stories of individuals affected by problem gambling, working with SIGA’s members worldwide and across languages. For Simmonds, education must come primarily from sports organizations — after all, as she pointed out, brands are also concerned about reputational risks.

In this regard, the partnership between sport and betting brands can still hold commercial value — provided there is investment in education and SIGA’s educational programme. This enables companies to demonstrate their commitment to responsible behavior and to building a healthy relationship between the two sectors.

“I believe Brazil has a great opportunity to get this right,” said Simmonds when asked about her outlook for the Brazilian market.

“The country can learn from the mistakes made in Europe and elsewhere, including the United States,” she added, noting that Brazil is moving in the “right direction” — especially given that current legislation requires betting operators to join integrity associations to obtain a federal license. According to Simmonds, this requirement shows that the government sees integrity as a priority for the sector.

“Integrity doesn’t take a day off — we need to keep watch at all times,” she said with a smile.

Before concluding the conversation, Simmonds highlighted the main challenges to ensuring sport integrity in a still-maturing market such as Brazil.

She stressed the need for collective effort across all stakeholders to achieve meaningful results:

“Not having a unified football league is one of the signs of underdevelopment in professional football. But I truly believe Brazilian sport is exciting and dynamic. Governance, however, needs significant investment — and sports betting is a legitimate way to recover that investment. On the other hand, it also carries a double risk. That’s why I believe government, sports organizations, and operators need to work together.”

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ABOUT SIGA

SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.

Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport  industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.

SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.

SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.

For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.

To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.

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