Sportradar Integrity Services’ report revealed that 1,212 suspicious matches were identified in 2022. This is an increase of 307 matches since 2021.
The total number in 2021 of suspicious matches was 903, which is a record for Sportradar.
This was revealed in Sportradar’s second annual Betting Corruption & Match-fixing Report. Its Universal Fraud Detection System, (UFDS) monitored the sports.
The report found that there were no match-fixing incidents at over 99.5 percent of sporting events, and that no sport had a match radio suspicious of more than 1%.
The sport with the highest number of suspicious matches was football, which had 775 in 2022, 64% of all total. This is an 11.5% increase year-on-year.
The third tier and lower tiers were responsible for more than half the suspicious alerts. These accounts accounted for 51.8%.
While the number of basketball matches that were suspicious jumped by 249.2% to 220 and tennis and table tennis soared by 41.5% each, they remained steady at 75.
Geographical spread
Suspicious matches were found in 12 sports and 92 nations.
Only half of all matches were held in Europe with a total of 630. Asia had 240 suspicious matches, followed by South America with 225. Africa was fourth with 93 suspicious matches, while North America had 24.
Sportradar identified the top 10 countries where the most match-fixing occurred. Brazil was the country with the most suspicious alerts, with 152, followed closely by Russia, which had 92. With 56 instances of suspicious sporting events, the Czech Republic came in third place. Kazakhstan came in fourth with 43.
A collaborative effort
Andreas Krannich is the managing director of Sportradar Integrity Services. He stated that the company’s integrity strategy performed well in 2022.
He stated, “Our multi-layered approach is paying off as 2022 saw a record amount of 169 sporting or criminal sanctions which were supported with Sportradar Integrity Services reports and data.”
Krannich stated that Sportradar Integrity Services cannot prevent match-fixing by itself, and that integrity measures must be prioritized for all sportspeople.
Krannich stated that “but the long-term anti match-fixing outlook must significantly improve, there must be a greater focus on integrity from sporting stakeholders as there is a significant lack in investment and allocations of resources.”
“We offer free bet monitoring, but governments and sports must invest in preventative measures like education and proactive and reactive intelligence collecting – which includes end-of-end investigations and acquisition of evidence that can use in disciplinary or criminal proceedings – that will eventually create a strong deterrent.”
Sportradar reported earlier this month a 30% increase in revenue for its full-year 2022 results. This is due to the company’s growth in the US.
