Sportradar Integrity Services has entered a multi-year education and bet monitoring service agreement with the Canadian Hockey league.
Under this partnership, the three CHL member leagues – the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League – will be monitored by Sportradar Integrity Services through its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS).
Sportradar already has a large portfolio of ice hockey partners, spanning nine different leagues and federations around the world. The addition of Canada strengthens its leadership position across North American sports leagues.
“By engaging Sportradar, a leader in providing integrity services, the CHL is putting itself in a strong position to protect the integrity of their competitions as well as educate and inform all their key stakeholders about potential risks within a sports betting environment,” said Andy Cunningham, director of global partnerships for Sportradar Integrity Services.
Together with its UFDS, Sportradar will also provide an integrity audit to the CHL, making its Intelligence and Investigation team available throughout the agreement to assist investigations into any potential integrity threats.
This comes after sports betting regulations in Canada have strengthened, making it compulsory for CHL teams, staff, stakeholders and junior players to be educated on the importance of integrity via an elearning tutorial programme, which is soon to be made available in multiple languages. This tightening of rules came after customers in Canada were permitted to wager on single sports events, rather than only multiples, for the first time.
Single-event sports betting became legal in Canada in August last year following Bill C-218’s passage into law in July. Sportradar says this bet monitoring system has been independently assessed and verified by recognised experts in the field of sports betting and integrity and, as such, complies with the British Colombia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) prioritisation of responsible gambling .
Dan MacKenzie, president of the Canadian Hockey League, added: “We are excited to sign this agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services. The provision of their bet monitoring and education services will only further strengthen our current integrity measures.
“The CHL is fully committed to protecting all of our league-wide stakeholders from the threat of match-fixing, and Sportradar’s elearning tutorial will be integral to ensure they are fully equipped with the necessary knowledge and understanding of how best to recognise and react to integrity threats.”
This agreement follows Sportradar Integrity Services reaching a similar deal with the International Handball Association late last year.
