Suspicious minds: Is the war against match-fixing being won?

All sports have to keep a watchful eye on suspicious betting patterns, and the latest integrity report from the International Betting Integrity Agency (IBIA) will come as a tonic, as it found there has been fewer irregular betting alerts in the second quarter of this year. Overall, there were 38 suspect betting alerts, a reduction of 41% when compared to the 64 cases of unusual wagers that were reported in the first quarter, and 66 cases in the final quarter of last year. Most of the 38 alerts were identified in Europe, where on 18 occasions the IBIA found that there could be the possibility of foul play, although it should be pointed out an alert does not necessarily signify anything untoward has occurred. A further five incidents were found in Asia and South America, with two red flags raised in North America and Africa, covering a total of five sports across the continents mentioned: football, beach volleyball, table tennis, esports and tennis all attracted potential dubious bets being placed.

Anyone for tennis?

The IBIA believes the reason there has been a significant quarter-on-quarter reduction is that tennis has seen a decline in inappropriate bets. The six cases in the latest report is the lowest total found in the sport since 2015, when the IBIA began producing quarterly integrity reports. The decrease in tennis-related cases is a testament to the hard work of The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), and it is an organisation that has had plenty to deal with recently. At this year’s Wimbledon Championships two matches were flagged up for possible irregular betting patterns: a singles match and a men’s doubles contest, both in the first round. More recently, the ITIA confirmed that Temur Ismailov and Amal Sultanbekov, both from Uzbekistan, were banned from the sport following a full investigation into match-fixing at a tournament in 2019. So far, there is nothing further to disclose over the matches at Wimbledon that were reported, where the ITIA is continuing to investigate the alerts to establish primarily if foul play over the betting and matches has occurred.

The ITIA strong on suspect gambling

Jonny Gray, CEO of the ITIA, explains how the organisation is looking to spot unusual betting patterns: “We value what the IBIA report found. Like them, we track match alerts. They are receiving alerts from their members, but there are clearly other betting organisations that are not members of IBIA. “We track the overall numbers and publish our tally, but, sure, there has been a reduction of match alerts that surround tennis since 2015, when we had a high point of them. We have seen the figures coming down as tennis has taken significant steps and made significant investment to combat corruption in the sport. “And that being both in terms of training and education of players and officials, but also enhanced cooperation between what was the Tennis Integrity Unit and now the upgraded ITIA, the betting industry, law enforcement and others to combat this threat to the sport. One of the things that’s important is that people generally realise this is an adversarial situation. There are people who want to corrupt the sport, including organised crime, and they will find ways to avoid detection,” he adds. The ITIA believes it is important that the betting industry continues to invest in measures to detect anomalous betting patterns and is confident that they will do this by varying their algorithms and their thresholds so they are unpredictable and can’t be easily circumvented by those who seek to corrupt sport. Also, the ITIA is in contact with individual betting operators directly through various mechanisms where information is shared, as well as betting regulators and industry bodies like the IBIA. Information-sharing agreements are in place with operators that use official live scoring data sold by the rights holders in tennis. Gray continues: “So we may get intelligence from sources that a match has been fixed. We would often then liaise with the betting operators to see whether they noticed any unusual betting on that match, which might corroborate the allegation that the match was fixed. Our role is not being a betting regulator, but what we are doing is seeking to counter corruption in the sport, and we have a significant number of programmes to do that.”

Targeting table tennis 

Table tennis has faced contrasting fortunes when it comes to suspicious betting, particularly in Ukraine in tournaments such as the Setka Cup and the TT Cup. An IBIA spokesperson says: “The rise in 2020 was primarily a product of the pandemic, with table tennis being one of the few sports that continued throughout that period, corrupters therefore refocused their attention to that sport. Table tennis alerts have fallen from the 2020 peak of 44, with 16 so far in 2021. The IBIA is working closely with stakeholders to increase protections around the sport and to maintain this fall in alerts.” In Australia, a series of curious betting patterns were found with table tennis matches across Europe, which led to corruption watchdog Sport Integrity Australia being alerted to the developments, in what is another ongoing criminal investigation. As part of a response to such outcomes, Sport Integrity Australia is currently developing the Australian Sports Wagering Scheme (ASWS), to further enhance a national response involving state and federal law enforcement, regulatory bodies and sports organisations. The development of the ASWS was a key pillar of the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements, establishing the requirements for information and intelligence gathering and sharing by key stakeholders. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and its commercial vehicle, World Table Tennis (WTT), has strict rules in place over suspicious betting and use a third party to be proactive in monitoring all betting activity to ensure integrity. All of the recent suspicious gambling surrounding table tennis is not from any events sanctioned or approved by the ITTF or WTT. Due to the measures that have been implemented, there has been few issues over unacceptable betting, although if anything unusual is noticed a thorough investigation is always authorised.

A grip on improper gambling

According to the IBIA’s latest report, football has seen a rise in irregular betting alerts in the second quarter of this year by 33% – up to 16 cases from the 12 that were found in the first quarter. Overall, though, football does not seem to be experiencing any kind of uptick in potentially suspect betting. The 28 cases so far this year is roughly on a par with the average of 52 cases per year found between 2017 and 2020. The average number of football matches that are available for customers of IBIA members per year is 150,000, resulting in a betting alert every 2,900 games, or 1.9% of matches that have been signalled to be perhaps underhand on the basis of the betting patterns. FIFA is well aware that the total global turnover from betting on football tournaments is worth billions, and while it’s a source of funding for the game, it is also a factor that could compromise the integrity of it. The governing body has put in place specific rules on betting, gambling and similar activities in football, as referred to in the FIFA Code of Ethics. Also, FIFA made an agreement with sports betting services provider Sportradar in 2017, with a view towards being supplied with a full suite of monitoring, education and intelligence services to boost betting corruption defences. It’s a key partnership, as the use of Sportradar’s advanced Fraud Detection System (FDS) allows FIFA to monitor matches and betting markets to analyse any suspicious betting behaviour, including from the men’s and women’s World Cup. All of the official tournaments of the six confederations: AFC, CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA are monitored by the FIFA and Sportradar partnership. Conversely to what the IBIA found in its report, Sportradar in its own investigations into suspicious sports betting revealed an increase of suspect cases in the first half of this year totalling 367, compared to the second half of last year where the number of cases reached 321. Football was found to be the most susceptible to inappropriate betting as 282 matches were affected by atypical betting patterns, followed by 36 esports matches, 14 tennis matches, 12 basketball matches and five cricket matches. Sportradar has a history of taking strong action against betting corruption, having supported 15 criminal convictions, which were handed down following a multi-year Thai criminal case into suspicious football matches from 2017, and has provided evidence supporting 22 sporting sanctions against clubs and individuals so far this year. Andreas Krannich, managing director of integrity services at Sportradar says: “We expected this year to be more challenging than the last, chiefly because of the financial impact on sporting bodies caused by the global pandemic. The financial hardship caused by Covid-19 has increased the susceptibility of those involved in sport to corrupt approaches. “We’ve utilised our leading FDS to monitor the global betting patterns from over 600 global operators to detect suspicious matches. And our analysis indicates that match-fixing levels in 2021 are worsening.” Artificial intelligence (AI) technology and machine learning is continuing to be integrated into the FDS, to provide increased capability and event coverage for its sporting partners.

Watch out

Looking ahead, the IBIA has reviewed the most effective methods to crush the culture of underhand betting as part of its optimum betting market study, and it concluded that the principal way to protect a betting market is through monitoring. The most efficient approach is for operators to report suspicious betting to authorities as they have market oversight, which is in their interests as a corrupt market would undermine the confidence of their regular clients. The model in operation in Britain is widely seen as the most effective, due to the reporting requirements of its licensing conditions, plus an integrity unit within its regulatory authority. France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Spain have adopted similar aspects of the British suspect gambling framework, while Malta, the world’s largest igaming hub, has established its own Sports Integrity Unit within the Malta Gaming Authority. Yet, the IBIA believes that the effect of any systems are negated if there is no ability to begin criminal proceedings, which have a far stronger effect on criminal activity than a sports authority imposing sanctions, even including lifetime bans. For example, custodial sentences were given to the culprits of the Pakistan international cricket spot-fixing court case in 2011. “It requires all stakeholders to work together to address corruption, from reporting through to investigation and sanctioning,” the IBIA spokesperson explains. “IBIA and its members are committed to continuing to assist sports, regulators and law enforcement around the world in that important process. Institutions such as the UN and the Council of Europe are also playing an important role in coordinating a transnational approach to a global issue.” A huge amount of progress has been made to combat illicit betting in sport using technology, and the willingness from a range of organisations to stamp down on the problem, but still more advances are required as it’s not a battle that has been won just yet.