Bulgaria wins the European Ethics Bowl 2023

Last weekend, 17 – 19 November 2023, SEB LU organised and hosted the semi-finals and finals of the international competition European Ethics Bowl. Ten teams from nine European universities and one team from the alumni programme of the European Investment Bank Institute Summer School took part in this year’s event. This year, the overall theme of the competition was “Ethics in Sport”.

On Saturday, teams from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Serbia and Slovenia competed in two rounds for the four places in the Final4 round. The students presented their views on given ethical topics related to ethical dilemmas in sport. After short presentations, they debated with the opposing teams, followed by questions from a panel of judges and assessment. The ethical issues were presented to the students in the form of specific case studies. The case studies were titled “Should the financial imbalances between football clubs be regulated and if so, how?” and “Exclusion of athletes from international competitions for non-sporting reasons”.

In the Final4 round, the teams discussed the topic of “Sponsorship in sport”. After exciting debates, Team Bulgaria and Team Portugal were announced as the two grand finalists.

The two final teams had just under two hours to prepare and research the topic of “Sports betting: A new economy built on vice”. They then competed in front a panel of five judges and the rest of the participants. The panel was made up of Slovenian and international experts covering the fields of economics, business, sports marketing and law. The final debate showed the outstanding debating performance of the finalists and led to a tough decision by the panel of judges.

Team Bulgaria, representing the University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, won the final debate by just a few points and was crowned the winner of the European Ethics Bowl 2023.

The organisers would like to thank the fantastic teams who travelled from all over Europe to take part in this event, the esteemed judges for their time, thoughtful questions and fair judging, the moderators who ensured that all debates ran smoothly and on time, and all the coordinators and representatives who accompanied the students throughout these three days.

The organisers would also like to thank The Economist and the companies Atlantic Group, Spar Slovenija d.o.o., TBA d.o.o., Hofer trgovina d.o.o. and Henkel Slovenia for their support, donations and sponsorship of the event.

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