ZURICH, Switzerland — Groups that regulate sports betting are calling for an international agency to coordinate the fight against illegal gambling and match-fixing.

Illegal gambling, which is worth tens of billions of dollars each year to criminal gangs, ranks alongside doping as the biggest threat to the integrity of sport, speakers said at a conference in Switzerland.

"What you will need in years to come is something like WADA, an agency that investigates betting-related corruption across all the sports," said Paul Scotney, head of the British Horseracing Authority's groundbreaking integrity unit.

For their part, gambling companies want global sports organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to help persuade lawmakers to regulate national betting markets.

"FIFA and the IOC obviously have huge power deciding which countries will receive the next World Cup or Olympic Games," said Norbert Teufelberger, chief executive of online operator Bwin International. "Our idea would be that only countries with a modern, regulated sports betting regime can be part of that family and organize those events."

The sports betting conference was hosted by Early Warning System, a Zurich-based firm that monitors suspicious gambling on the World Cup and the Summer Olympics.

EWS, which was created by FIFA to look for match-fixing attempts during qualifying for the 2010 tournament, shares information with more than 400 betting operators worldwide. It was asked by the IOC to track betting patterns during the Beijing Games.

Betting patterns from Beijing are being analyzed to predict how gambling might affect the 2012 London Games.

EWS head of strategy Wolfgang Feldner said doping and corrupt betting were the biggest challenges confronting sports.

"I think this could be the way," he said. "A worldwide organization which is monitoring betting and analyzing in a central system."

The sports betting industry believes legalized gambling is needed to track wagers and keep information on clients.

"Prohibition drives customers into the black markets," Teufelberger said, pointing to a U.S. ban on online gambling in 2006. "We have respected the rules but we are lobbying to reopen the market."