The Global CEO of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, and the Chair of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML – Lisbon’s Holy House of Mercy), Edmundo Martinho, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that expands existing cooperation between the two organisations.
With the formalisation of this MoU, SCML becomes a member of SIGA, following approval by other members during the 2 March Extraordinary General Assembly.
SIGA and SCML committed to collaborating in relation to matters of common concern and shared priority, including but not limited to the following objectives:
- Promote Sport’s positive values and its social, educational, cultural and economic roles;
- Enhance integrity, transparency, accountability and sustainability in Sport;
- Promote Sport’s sound and sustainable development, preventing and countering all forms of illegal, unlawful and fraudulent sports betting, as well as corruption, bribery, money laundering and other threats;
- Provide training, education and capacity building on Sports Betting Integrity to the sport movement, including sports competition organisers and their officials, athletes, coaches, medical staff and other relevant stakeholders;
- Support, contribute to and participate in the development of SIGA’s and SIGA EUROPE’s thought leadership initiatives and reform agenda;
Founded in 1498 by Portugal’s Queen D. Leonor, SCML is a private institution of public administrative utility. It has a long-standing commitment to social values and has added integrity to its core missions, which also include social action, healthcare, culture, education, and training.
Commenting the agreement, the SIGA Global CEO, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, stated:
“The community service and relevance obtained by SCML deserves our recognition. It is a personal pleasure to welcome SCML to SIGA, as we see this coalition continuing to expand. The formalisation of this partnership will help address the extremely complex global challenges that require action. Action is what we see in SCML! It is an energetic, dynamic organisation with a highly relevant role in the field of gaming, the good regulation of gaming, the preservation of the integrity and reputation that should be associated with it and also social causes. SCML is an international reference and SIGA needs it in order to share and promote good practices in this area.”
Edmundo Martinho, Chair of the Lisbon’s Holy House of Mercy, added:
“The moment we were invited to join SIGA, the question we asked ourselves was: does it make sense for SCML to be part of this global coalition? Our doubts didn’t last long, as it is evident SCML has increased responsibilities in this area. For Santa Casa it is fundamental to always ensure that the way gambling is made available is done without putting the families’ budget at risk. I believe that this connection to SIGA will help us to be even more effective from this point of view and firmer in defending these principles. We count on the experience of other partners to help us on this path of defending integrity in Sport”.
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ABOUT SCML
SCML is a not-for-profit organisation overseen by the Portuguese Minister in charge of Social Security. Since its founding in 1498, SCML has focused on social enterprise works, and since 1783 it has held the right to operate lotteries to fund health and social initiatives. These now include various national lotteries, the Euromillions lottery and online gaming. Revenues earned from this activity are put back into society through social enterprise programmes.
Since the start of the 21st century, SCML has focused on expanding its social enterprise work to a broader segment of the population. SCML operates hospitals, invests heavily into scientific and medical research in neuroscience, funds education and training programmes, aggregates social entrepreneurship activities, runs a free paediatric dentistry service, works with other bodies to focus on the care of the 65+ population, and during the COVID-19 pandemic helped the elderly in social isolation as well as setting up a free online psychological support platform.
Over the centuries SCML has accumulated a vast artistic and cultural collection, including the Museum and Church of Sao Roque.
For more information visit https://scml.pt/; Twitter; Instagram; Facebook; Linkedin
ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world´s leading organisation for Sports Integrity. Supported by more than 200 international multi-industry supporters, we are creating a whole new landscape for the global sports industry by promoting the implementation of the highest integrity standards and delivering independent global rating and certification for Sport.
Funded by its members, SIGA is the only organisation to bring together all key stakeholder groups – Sport, Government, International Organisations, Global Business and Civil Society – from every region in the world, around one critical, fundamental Cause: to foster greater Integrity throughout Sport.
SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for profit association, funded by its members, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.
Click on the hyperlinks for the list of SIGA Members and Committed Supporters and SIGA Partners.
For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com.
To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.