Sportradar released its third annual Integrity Report which showed that match-fixing did not drastically increase despite the rapid growth of legal sports betting in North America.
To construct the ‘Betting Corruption and Match-fixing in 2023’ report, Sportradar monitored roughly 850,000 events and matches across 70 sports. The report highlights a total of 1,329 suspicious matches in 2023, occuring in 11 sports in 105 countries. This is just a marginal increase on the 1,212 suspicious matches detected in 2022.
Of the 1,295 suspicious matches detected in 2023, only 34 came from women’s sporting events.
Most affected regions
Only 35 suspicious matches occurred in North America in 2023, just 13 more such occurrences than the 22 that were reported in 2022. This is a major testament to the integrity of the legal sports betting industry in North America considering some of the largest markets like Ohio and Massachusetts launched in 2023.
Europe led with the highest number of suspicious matches with 667 in 2023, followed by Asia’s 302, and South America’s 217. The Asian markets saw the most significant increase in terms of suspicious match numbers year-over-year, with 60 more matches detected.
Most affected sports
Overall, the data indicates that 99.5% of sporting events remain untainted by match-fixing, with no single sport exhibiting a suspicious match ratio greater than 1%.
Soccer was once again the most affected sport with 880 suspicious matches detected, or 66% of the total. Basketball remained the second sport most affected with 205 occurrences. Both soccer and basketball saw 775 and 220 suspicious matches, respectively, in 2022. Table tennis was again the third-most affected sport with 70 suspicious matches detected last year, a slight decline year-over-year from its 75 suspicious matches in 2022.
Across all sports, the suspected manipulation rate stood at just one in every 467 matches, which is consistent with 2022’s figure of one in every 473. The overall manipulation rate has improved from 2021 when one in every 545 matches were suspicious.
The importance of transparency
The report noted that account-level betting data from sports betting operators continues to be a crucial factor in detecting competition manipulation.
The repot found 51% of the 1,329 suspicious matches identified in 2023 were detected, in part, by using account-level betting data. Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System features powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and the Sportradar Integrity Exchange encompasses 77 betting operators.
“Our multi-faceted approach to sports integrity continued to contribute to hugely positive results in 2023, with 147 sporting and criminal sanctions across 39 separate cases issued in the year supported by Sportradar’s data and reports,” said Sportradar’s Andreas Krannich, EVP of Integrity, Rights Protection & Regulatory Services, of his company’s efficacy in upholding the integrity of sports betting.
Even legendary gambler Billy Walters recently touted the transparency in today’s legal sports betting market, so it’s reassuring to see real data that attests to the industry’s integrity amidst such rapid expansion.
