Sportradar Integrity Services identified record number of suspicious matches in 2022
Company's annual report shows a 34% year-on-year rise in suspicious matches, with football the most flagged sport
Sportradar Integrity Services has revealed it detected 1,212 suspicious sports matches in 2022, representing a 34% year-on-year (YoY) increase.
The supplier monitored 850,000 matches in 2022, an increase of 100,000 on 2021.
In its second annual report, the supplier noted that football produced the highest number of suspicious matches (775), accounting for 64% of the detections in 2022.
In addition, the trend that lower league football is more affected by match-fixing has continued, with 52% of all suspicious football matches coming from the third tier or lower, including regional leagues and youth competitions.
Football also had the highest frequency of suspicious matches, with one in every 171 matches flagged.
The firm also highlighted a worrying trend in basketball, as the sport saw a massive 250% YoY increase in detections with 220 suspicious matches across the year.
Tennis was the third most flagged sport, with 75 matches under suspicion in 2022.
September and October were the two months that garnered the highest number of suspicious matches across all sports, with 125 and 120, respectively. This also coincides with the start of the traditional football season across Europe.
It was also Europe that had the most amount of suspicious sports matches overall, with 630 detections, with Asia in second with 240 detections.
At country-level, Brazil had the most suspicious activity, with 152 detections last year.
Andreas Krannich, MD of Sportradar Integrity Services, said: “We’ve taken an even more proactive approach to uncovering match-fixing in 2022, from implementing a new AI model to developing more formal working relationships with bookmakers through the launch of our Integrity Exchange, which resulted in more than 300 alerts.
“Our technology enables us to monitor more matches on a deeper level, providing more precise and accurate insights to help aid partners, clients and the wider sports industry in efforts to safeguard sporting events from corruption. We look forward to supporting even more sports federation and law enforcement partners in 2023.”
In the report, the firm estimated that global betting turnover had reached €1.41tn (£1.24tn).
The supplier also looked ahead to 2023 and where it predicts the trends will be heading.
It said that football would continue to be the sport with the highest level of suspicious matches and that basketball would remain in second position.
It also predicted that Europe will continue to see the most amount of suspicious matches, with South America pushing Asia in the number two position.