The article analyzes the notion of “sporting event”, a notion used to describe some offences (i.e., manipulation in sports competitions, bribery, arranged bets) from the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova. In this sense, there were national and international normative provisions, judicial practice and specialized literature. Particular attention was paid to the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on the manipulation of sports competitions, to the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, it is concluded that notion of “sport” is associated with different words, e.g., match, event, competition. The content of these notions may differ from one country to another.