Moynihan's comments come after International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge warned that betting and match-fixing could pose a bigger threat to the Olympics than doping.

Britain have since been working on a strategy to stop the threat and it has been confirmed that daily anti-corruption meetings involving the IOC, Britain's Gambling Commission, police, the Border Agency and London 2012 will be held to spot suspicious betting patterns and assess if any athletes are deliberately underperforming for personal profit.

The will report their findings to Interpol and to the IOC.

"What is being put in place is a comprehensive structure of support to assess the extent of any undue movements in the market," said Moynihan here today.

"The betting exchanges will also be monitored closely as there is the possibility of betting to lose."

Moynihan also revealed that British athletes are banned from betting on any Olympic sport under their BOA contract.

The illegal gambling industry is believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars annually according to figures presented at an IOC conference this month and Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson (pictured) said that the threat is a relatively new one at the Games.

"At the moment it is perfectly legal to spot bet on all sports, for example to make a spot bet on first short corner in [field] hockey," said Robertson said at a briefing.

"Up until this point illegal betting has not been a huge problem at the Olympics, but it was difficult to monitor in Beijing and this is a new threat and an evolving threat."

But even if suspicions are raised about athletes, authorities won't have the power to intervene to stop them from competing.

"An athlete won't be pulled prior to that event as nothing will have happened," Robertson said.

"An offense has not been committed until it has actually happened."

The IOC monitored betting patterns during Beijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010 but found nothing irregular.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2012: Mike Rowbottom - IOC are not the gambler's best friend but London 2012 is still set to be bet bonanza
November 2011: Mihir Bose - It's time European sports administrators studied US model to combat match fixing
October 2011: David Owen - Why I'm betting that betting will be a big story at London 2012
September 2011: Exclusive - A record £50 million to be bet on London 2012
June 2011: IOC steps up efforts in fight against irregular and illegal betting in sport