After utilising its bet monitoring system (the Universal Fraud Detection System – UFDS) for the last 18 months to detect suspicious activity in 12 different sports across over 70 countries, Sportradar concluded that football is the sport at most risk of betting-related corruption (with more than 500 matches detected in 2021 to date).
Approximately 40% of the suspicious activities within domestic football competition comes from third-tier leagues and below, including youth level, because fixers increase their attention on lower-level matches.
Additionally, the UFDS-detected suspicious activity in tennis (37 matches), basketball (19), table tennis (11), ice hockey (9), cricket (6); other such activity has been identified in volleyball, handball and beach volleyball.
On a global level, the UFDS has detected 382 questionable matches in Europe so far this year and 115 in Latin America; the Asia Pacific region followed with 74 matches, Africa with 43, 10 in the Middle East and nine in North America since the start of January 2021.
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.”
