MUMBAI: Havas Sports & Entertainment has formed a strategic partnership with content marketing agency Seven46 as part of its strategy to strengthen its global sports offer in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil.

Olympic and major event bid specialists, Seven46, will be based in the HS&E London office, and is already working on projects with HS&E offices across the network.

Seven46 founder Nick Varley has worked on London?s successful 2012 bid and was one of the core team members responsible for its acclaimed final presentation.

Subsequently, Seven46, has worked on the Rio 2016 bid, the International Rugby Board?s successful campaign for Rugby Sevens to join the Olympic Programme and, most recently, London?s winning bid to host the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.

Havas Sports & Entertainment Global President & CEO Lucien Boyer commented, "This partnership will significantly strengthen the offering to our current client-base -- which includes more than 50 sports governing bodies, clubs and bids worldwide -- and beyond. Nick Varley is a leader in the development of compelling and meaningful campaigns in sport and his Seven46 team is an outstanding addition to our network. We are already working effectively together on a number of projects and look forward to a range of exciting, global, collaborations, in the sports and Olympic world, with them."

Part of Havas Media, the Havas Sports & Entertainment network includes 36 offices across 20 countries and comprises the Cake Group and ignition brands.

The network helps sports clubs, brands, governing bodies and bids develop meaningful relationships with their audiences and clients including: The English Premier League, Chelsea FC, ?Gabon 2012? (The African Nations Cup), and the winning French 2018 Ryder Cup Bid, and Olympic Sponsors: The Coca-Cola Company, EDF, BMW, Eurostar, Lloyd?s Banking Group and others.

MUMBAI: Is gambling in sport good for business? Will 2012 be another year of headline convictions and corruption in a major competition? Is betting an integral part of commercial success, or a risk to the competitive integrity of the sport industry? What?s next for gambling in sport?

These questions and many more will be debated at the Global Sports Forum Barcelona 2012 (GSFB), from 7 ? 9 March, as ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat joins Fifa head of security Chris Eaton, and Norbert Teufelberger, Co-CEO of online gambling company Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment for a panel discussion on ?Gambling in sport.?

Eaton, who recently estimated that ? 300 billion- ? 500 billion is gambled on sport across the globe every year, has been involved in international criminal investigations for 40 years. He joins the panel to discuss his view that as many as 70 per cent of bets placed on sport fixtures go through unregulated and unregistered bookmakers, which is threatening the integrity of professional sport.

Havas Sport and Entertainment president, CEO Lucien Boyer who is also the general commissioner of the Global Sports Forum Barcelona, said, ?Gambling and corruption in sport remains a top priority for governing bodies across the globe, with three Pakistan cricketers convicted of spot-fixing and Fifa appointing Chris Eaton to a new head of security role in 2011.?

?In such a big year for sport, the GSFB 2012 is leading the way in tackling the issues that are of vital importance to the future of the sport industry and we are delighted to welcome five of the industry?s leading experts to the Forum. We will be investigating how sport can manage legal gambling and eradicate the illegal bookmaking culture to protect the industry we all know and love.?

Lorgat recently highlighted the danger illegal gambling posts to sport, telling BBC Test Match special that spot fixing in cricket is ?the most significant issue we need to tackle.?

?You cannot underestimate the value of protecting your integrity and the reputation of the game and if that was to go, we?ve got no game. I think we have shown we will not rest until we do tackle the issue,? Lorgat told the BBC.

Lorgat, Eaton and Teufelberger will also be joined on the panel by John Abbott, Chairman of the Interpol steering group for the Interpol ? Fifa initiative to reduce corruption in football, and Warren Phelops, gambling policy representative for the European Sponsorship Association.