On Tuesday (29 October), Brazil’s ministry of finance announced it has agreed to partner with four industry monitoring and integrity organisations to aid the fight against match-fixing.
The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), which sits within the ministry of finance, penned Technical Cooperation Agreements (ACTs) with Genius Sports, Sportradar, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and the Sports Integrity Global Alliance (Siga and Siga Latin America) to counter fears over match-fixing in Brazil.
The partnerships will last for five years, with the collaborations aiming to strengthen the safety network surrounding the manipulation of sports in Brazil. They will consider the bodies’ learnings and experience in more mature markets like England and Australia.
The agreements will also serve to help the SPA gain knowledge of the betting market in Brazil, educating SPA teams on how to monitor the legal sports betting sector, which is set to go live alongside igaming on 1 January 2025. SPA leader Regis Dudena says similar partnerships may be made in future.
“They will train us so that we can identify possible cases of manipulation and related fraud, in addition to sharing information. It is a two-way street,” Dudena explained.
“The SPA is open to discussions with other organisations that work on betting integrity.”
Dudena believes the formalised partnerships with the likes of Sportradar and the IBIA will lead to increased knowledge sharing and hopefully a decrease in manipulation.
“We can and should share information so that all operators can be aware of suspicious cases,” Dudena added.
Fears over match-fixing in Brazil
The upcoming launch of the legal betting market in Brazil has been impacted by a number of controversies, including allegations of match-fixing.
A parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) was set up earlier this year after John Textor, American businessman and owner of top-flight Brazilian football club Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas, accused São Paulo players of match-fixing.
A spat ensued, with CPI president Jorge Kajuru claiming Textor should be expelled from Brazil should his claims be found to not have supporting evidence. Textor stands by his allegations.
The IBIA’s 2023 Integrity Report found Brazil to have the third most suspicious sports betting incidents worldwide, with all 11 notifications coming from football.
So far this year, the IBIA has detected six suspicious sports betting incidents in Brazil, five of which stemmed from football. Three of those came in Q1, prior to the establishment of the CPI.
Increased collaboration to help
IBIA CEO Khalid Ali agrees collaboration will continue to play a key role in Brazil’s fight against match-fixing in its soon-to-be regulated online betting market.
“IBIA is delighted to have entered into this agreement with the ministry of finance and commends the government’s focus on creating a robust ecosystem to combat match-fixing in sports betting,” Ali declared.
“In line with the agreement, IBIA will identify and report to the ministry of finance suspicious bets on Brazilian sporting events, providing detailed customer account data, which is unique to IBIA and its members, to assist in investigations.”
Sportradar’s manager for integrity partnerships in Brazil, Felippe Marchetti, added: “This ACT reflects a mutual commitment to establish a sustainable, regulated sports betting industry in Brazil that is built upon a foundation of integrity.”
