October 14 – Sportradar is reporting that its match-fixing detecting system highlighted 1,100 suspicious matches in the past 18 months, with 655 coming in the first nine months of 2021.
Worrying for football is that Sportradar saying that of the 655 suspicious matches detected this year, more than 500 are in within the game.
Sportradar monitors for suspicious activity in the betting markets via its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) system, that follows 12 different sports in more than 70 countries worldwide. Sportradar partner with more than 100 sports federations and leagues with its sports integrity services division and is now delivering its UFDS bet monitoring service free of charge to sports federations, sports leagues, and state authorities worldwide.
Andreas Krannich, Managing Director, Integrity Services at Sportradar said: “As our analysis shows, match-fixing is evolving, and those behind it are diversifying their approach, both in the sports and competitions they target, and the way they make approaches to athletes, such as the rise in digital approaches. To help address this, Sportradar has made a significant investment to make it possible to offer the UFDS for free to global sports organisations and leagues. The reason for this is that we are committed to supporting the sustainability of global sports and using data and technology for good.”
The Sportradar figures cover the pandemic which has seen a lot of sport cancelled, with match fixers subsequently focussing on leagues, particularly in football, that were either restarting or managed to continue during the lockdown.
“Approximately 40% of the suspicious activities reported within domestic football competitions comes from third tier leagues and below, including youth level, as fixers increase their attention on lower-level matches,” said Sportradar.
Geographically, across all sports monitored, Sportradar’s figures weighted towards Europe with 382 suspicious matches detected so far this year, compared to 115 in Latin America, 74 in the Asia Pacific region, 43 in Africa, 10 in the Middle East and nine in North America since the start of January 2021.
Esports has been a target for fixers with more than 70 suspicious matches detected since April last year across five different game titles, with more than 40 of those suspicious matches identified since January this year.
Figures for other sports are: Tennis: 37 matches; Basketball: 19; Table Tennis: 11; Ice Hockey: 9; Cricket: 6, while suspicious activity has also been identified in Volleyball, Handball, and Beach Volleyball.
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