Massachusetts sports bettors can no longer wager on events governed by the International Boxing Association.
Commissioners voted unanimously to remove the IBA from the state’s Sports Wagering Catalog during an Aug. 15 meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The removal is related to Massachusetts’ regulations prohibiting wagers on leagues, events, and athletes with explicit Russian ties.
IBA events have been available for wagering in the Commonwealth since sports betting launched last year. With the prohibition, Massachusetts sportsbooks will cancel and refund players who have outstanding IBA wagers.
International Boxing Association barred from Massachusetts sports betting
MGC sports wagering operations manager Andrew Steffen told commissioners that concerns about the IBA surfaced during internal discussions regarding Olympic boxing. Further research highlighted additional details about the controversial boxing league.
The IBA is technically headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. However, the news media found that current IBA president Umar Kremlev moved most of the league’s operations to Russia after being elected IBA president in December 2020. Kremlev was reelected as the IBA’s president in 2022 to an additional four-year term.
Prior to Massachusetts’ sports betting launch, the MGC instituted a rule prohibiting wagers on Russian and Belarusian events and leagues. The rule was implemented in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Steffen said that the IBA’s Russian connections warranted removal from the state’s sports wagering catalog:
“The IBA is the last international sports body still overseen by a Russian citizen and the only which still allows Russian athletes to fight under the flag and play their national anthem.”
Olympics banned IBA participation due to integrity concerns
There have also been questions raised about the integrity of the IBA as a governing body.
Since 1946, the IBA governed all boxing matches for the Summer Olympics. But ahead of the 2020 Tokyo games, the International Olympic Committee barred the IBA from overseeing Olympic boxing over concerns about the IBA’s governance and integrity. The IOC has self-governed boxing at the last two summer Olympic games.
Commissioner Eileen O’Brien noted Massachusetts’ Russian and Belarusian betting ban and the Olympics’ separation from the IBA over integrity concerns as sufficient reasons to outlaw wagering on the league in Massachusetts:
“I was actually very swayed by the fact that the IOC had growing concerns over the governance, financial management and integrity (of the IBA). So there are two prongs to this for me. One of them is the relation (to the Massachusetts regulation prohibiting wagering on Russian leagues). And then the other one is, a body that looks into this has already raised substantial questions and removed them. I think for both of those reasons I support the sports wagering department’s recommendation on this.”
IBA fueled false rumors about Olympic boxing gold medalist
Although not directly mentioned at the MGC meeting, it seems likely that the IBA was brought to the attention of the sports wagering division due to a recent controversy that surfaced during the women’s boxing competitions at this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
After Italian boxer Angela Carini bowed out of her match against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after 46 seconds, several high-profile social media users suggested that Khelif was a trans woman who should have been barred from competing against women. The IOC responded by stating that Khelif was born — and has lived her entire life as — a woman.
The false rumors stemmed from the 2023 disqualification of Khelif and another boxer from the IBA’s Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India. During the Olympics, the IBA issued a statement that claimed the boxers were disqualified after unspecified tests determined they did not “meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations.”
Kremlev told state-owned Russian media outlet Tass that the reason for the disqualification was that Khelif “had XY chromosomes.” French news agency Agence France-Presse reported that Kremlev said the IBA’s “genetic testing” showed that Khelif and the other boxer are “men.”
Khelif would go on to win the Olympic gold medal in the 66-kilogram boxing final. The boxer filed a complaint with French authorities over the online harassment that resulted from the rumors.
Massachusetts bettors can wager on over a dozen other boxing leagues
Steffen’s memo to commissioners recommending the IBA’s removal from the wagering catalog noted that several other boxing events and leagues are still available to bettors in Massachusetts.
Here is the full list of boxing leagues that remain in the state’s Sports Wagering Catalog:
- World Boxing Association
- World Boxing Council
- Would Boxing Organization
- International Boxing Federation
- British Boxing Board of Control
- Association of Boxing Commissions
- African Boxing Union
- British and Irish Boxing Authority
- International Boxing Organization
- International Boxing Union
- Irish Athletic Boxing Association
- Women’s International Boxing Association
- World Boxing Federation
- World Boxing Union
