A new Swiss company, International Sports Monitoring, has been set-up to oversee the system, which will also be used for the London 2012 Games.

The IOC that the firm will analyse betting on Olympic competitions and flag irregularities for investigation.

Athletes at Vancouver will also be educated about the programme, part of broadening efforts in sports to tackle corrupt betting and match-fixing.

Olympic athletes and all others accredited for the Games are barred from betting on competitions.

During the Beijing Games the IOC co-operated with another company, Early Warning System, set up by FIFA, and no suspicious betting patterns were discovered.

The monitoring found that a wide array of bets were offered for all Olympic sports, but that bets laid were generally small of between $7 to $70, the IOC says.

Thomas Bach, the IOC vice-president, said: "The results of the monitoring were very encouraging, there was not much betting.

"There was not a single bet where the alarms started ringing.

"If it happens, it is too late, so we want to be pro-active and to avoid any kind of match-fixing."

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, is currently investigating 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup, mostly involving eastern European clubs.

The matches being scrutinised for suspicious betting patterns involved early qualifying games that took place over the last four seasons.

UEFA has also began to take increasing measures to protect against illegal betting and match-fixing, and started a special investigation to clamp down on the problem.

Tennis also has a unit to investigate suspected corruption.
The IOC first noticed internet bets being offered on Olympic competitions, mainly athletics, at the 2004 Athens Games.

It formed a group to study the issue and in 2006 formalised rules banning all those with accreditation from betting on Olympic competitions after Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, spoke out about the dangers of betting in the Games and ruled that he would never allow a bookmaker to sign-up as a sponsor.

Last year Paul Scotney, the head of the British Horseracing Authority's groundbreaking integrity unit, called for a World Anti-Doping Agency-style group to be set-up to look out for illegal gambling and match-fixing.

Athletes suspected of involvement in gambling can be called before a disciplinary commission.

A spokeswoman for the IOC said: "The IOC has decided to set up its own company that can work independently from any particular federation, and at the same time be at the disposal of all international federations on future occasions."


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