IBIA annual report shows 13% drop in suspicious betting patterns in 2021

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has reported 236 cases of suspicious betting patterns in 2021, which is down 13% on the 270 cases reported in 2020.

The IBIA’s annual report for 2021 outlined that last year’s alerts spanned 13 sports and 49 different countries with tennis and football continuing to dominate. Tennis produced 80 alerts which is down 18% on the 98 reported in 2020, while football recorded its highest annual alerts at 66, a rise of 8% on the previous 12 months.

Europe topped the list with the highest number of alerts comprising half of the global reported cases, while Russia had the highest number of any single country with 27. Only 10 alerts were reported in North America which is a 54% decrease from the 22 of the previous year.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, advised: “Another challenging year for the sector has passed with the spectre of Covid and its impact on sporting events declining, and hopefully a potential endgame in sight. It is therefore welcomed that the alerts for 2021 showed a downward trend and a return to pre-Covid numbers. Challenges however persist, notably with the growth of private sports events and establishing integrity protocols to the levels seen in traditional sports bodies. The association is working with a number of stakeholders in this area to improve integrity provisions.

“Indeed, the dangers of betting corruption remain, and as the Optimum Betting Market report published last year highlighted, that equates to around $25m per annum in lost revenue for the regulated betting sector globally. It is therefore welcome that the requirement for operators to be part of an integrity monitoring system have gathered pace across the US, and have been endorsed in Sweden, to add to existing requirements in the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. The approach in Ontario is particularly worthy of attention and is a best practice model. The association looks forward to working with a wider range of operators on integrity as a result.”

The IBIA – formerly known as ESSA – was established in 2005 and is the leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry. The association is active across six continents and works with sports organisations and gambling regulators, using its data to prosecute corruption, and it represents the sector at high-level policy discussion forums.