Where did PTG's name originate from?

THE WORLD sports conference takes its name from a poem called ‘Vitai Lampada’, or ‘The torch of life’. The poem was written in the 19th century by an Englishman called Sir Henry Newbolt. Vitai Lampada is about a future soldier who learns stoicism in cricket matches in the famous close at Clifton College, writes Victoria Howe.

Stoicism is where someone is indifferent to pleasure or pain, a philosophy founded in the 3rd century by a Greek philosopher called Zeno the Citium.

Bookmaker leading the fight against match fixing

PLAYERS AND officials are the only people who can fix a match according to Betfair’s Managing Director, Mark Davies. He also argued that legal betting companies were making every effort to help police, identify and act upon irregular betting patterns, writes Victoria Howe.

It was clear from Davies’ talk that Betfair has taken a number of steps to stop illegal bets and match fixing, with a strict policy that users have to follow when they sign up. Providing identification and credit card details allows it to track every single bet transaction made at its chain of bookmakers around the world.

Profile:Richard Pound-an anti-drug campaigner

RICHARD POUND is a former gold medallist Olympic swimmer, who trained as both an accountant and lawyer at McGill University before graduating in 1968. Pound is the former Vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the former President of the World Anti-doping agency (WADA). Pound has been relentless in his fight to rid the world of sport of illicit performance-enhancing drugs, writes Victoria Howe.

Profile:Florien Petrica- The Significance of financial values

FLORIEN PETRICA is the current editor-in-chief of The Money Channel. He comes from a background of sports reporting and commentating, having completed a post graduate in journalism at the University of Bucharest and a masters in management in sport at the University of Iasi. He graduated in 2002, before going on to become editor-in-chief at both Telesport and National TV. Florien said: “My vision is that the financial values could be converted in journalist values, and this approach could be very useful for the values of sport”, writes Victoria Howe.

Profile:Declan Hill- Sports Journalism on a budget

DECLAN HILL is a former investigative journalist who has a PhD from Oxford University. Declan is speaking on ‘How to do investigative journalism in sports when you don’t have any money’ as part of a group of talks on investigative journalism in sport, in the Humber lecture theatre at 11.15am writes Victoria Howe.

Hill specialises in organised crime and corruption in sport. He is the author of “The Fix” a ground-breaking piece of investigative journalism exposing some of the secrets and realities of match-fixing in professional sport.

Hill has previously worked for CBC Radio, CBC television, BBC radio world service and BBC radio 4, along with various other media sources. His documentaries on honour killings in Turkey and the murder of journalists in the Philippines have earned him various awards.