The 2024 Sportradar annual integrity report has displayed a significant decline in suspicious match detections for football in Brazil, with the country no longer the most impacted by match-fixing in the sport.
On Thursday (9 January), Sportradar released its ‘Integrity in Action 2024 Global Analysis & Trends’ report for 2024. Its 2023 edition reported Brazil had the most suspicious match detections of all countries surveyed with 109 during the 12-month period.
The 109 figure suspicious match detections in 2023 was a 29% year-on-year reduction on the previous year, though. And there is more positive news for Brazil in this year’s integrity report, as the total number of suspicious football matches dropped by 52 to 57 in Brazil. It was no longer the nation with the most suspicious match detections for the sport in 2024.
Of the 57 detections, four were in competitions organised by the Brazil Football Confederation (CBF), representing just 0.18% of all games overseen by the CBF. Comparatively there were 15 suspicious matches detected in CBF-organised competitions in 2023.
These updates from the Sportradar report will come as welcome relief for Brazil’s football and betting sectors, particularly considering the match-fixing storm in 2024. The case followed allegations of manipulation from American businessman John Textor, owner of Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas, against São Paulo players.
The federal police investigated and this led to a parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) being set up to investigate match-fixing in Brazil.
The dispute cast an unwanted cloud over the Brazil sports betting sector as it headed towards regulation on 1 January 2025.
However, the industry remained optimistic that collaborative measures and technological assistance would alleviate these concerns. Sportradar has been at the forefront of the efforts.
In an August iGB article, Sportradar’s integrity partnership manager for Brazil, Felippe Marchetti, revealed Brazil’s number of suspicious matches had dropped 60% during H1 2024.
“Politicians are showing that they are concerned about the problem and that they want to collaborate to protect one of the cultural heritages of the country, football,” Marchetti told iGB. “Moreover, increased visibility of the topic and deepening investigations tend to ward off manipulators from the country.”
Europe still most affected region
Despite improvements in Brazil, South America more broadly reported an overall increase of 27 suspicious match detections across all sports in 2024. The total for the region was 245.
However, the region ranked third globally, with Europe continuing to be the most affected. It reported 439 detections, ahead of Asia’s 310 suspicious match reports.
Europe is “traditionally the region most affected by match-fixing”, Sportradar said. Although the region did see a decrease of 229 suspicious match reports compared to 2023.
Suspicious matches down by nearly a fifth
The drop observed in Europe trended alongside the overall pattern of Sportradar’s findings. Overall the report noted a 17% decrease in suspicious matches across all regions to 1,108. This is down from 1,331 in 2023.
The number of countries in which suspicious matches were identified fell to 95 from 105, with 99.5% of matches having no suspicious activity surrounding them.
The suspected manipulation rate also dropped to one in 615 from one in 467 the year prior.
In a packed sporting calendar, football remained the most-affected sport for manipulation with 721 suspicious matches, representing 65% of the total figure despite a year-on-year reduction of 160 matches.
Basketball remained the second most reported sport with 187 suspicious matches recorded. Tennis and table tennis came in third and fourth with 69 and 41 respectively.
Despite the overall drop Andreas Krannich, Sportradar’s executive vice president for integrity, rights protection & regulatory services, believes there is more work to be done to prevent match-fixing globally.
“While the notable reduction in suspicious matches in 2024 gives us reason to be optimistic, it also signals the need for continued vigilance and innovation, given that the number remains significant,” Krannich said.
Sportradar Integrity Exchange continues to grow
The Sportradar Integrity Exchange (SIE) was launched in 2022 and sought to allow operators to take an increasingly active role in assisting integrity investigations and boost their understanding of match-fixing.
It has grown significantly with the SIE today having 117 operators as members, up 52% from the end of 2023.
Operator-provided data helped to identify 291 suspicious matches in 2024. The SIE reported 843 games in total, marking an 88% year-on-year rise.
“The SIE maintained its momentum in 2024, experiencing significant growth in both global membership and impact. It has now established itself as the world’s largest association of betting operators,” Sportradar said.
In total across the year, Sportradar helped to resolve 18 manipulation-related disciplinary cases, with 104 sporting sanctions handed out.
One of the most notable was English snooker player Mark King, who was given a five-year ban and a fine of £68,299.50 (€81,875.39/$86,272.51) for match-fixing following an investigation triggered by Sportradar flagging the match in question as suspicious.
