Sportradar’s UFDS reports record-high match-fixing activity in 2021

Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) recorded 903 occasions of ‘suspicious betting activity’ in 2021, the highest level ever recorded by the firm since its founding in 2005.

In a new report titled ‘Betting Corruption and Match-fixing in 2021”, the data and sports betting provider highlighted this key piece of data. There were 903 suspicious matches across 10 different sports, spanning 76 countries. This is a 2.4% increase on the previous high recorded by the firm, which was 882 instances in 2019.

Football was the sport that generated the highest amount of suspicious activity, with one in every 201 fixtures being flagged for concern. September and October were the two months that garnered the highest number of suspicious matches, with 105 and 104, respectively. This also coincides with the start of the traditional football season across Europe.

The lower leagues of football were said to be the most affected form of competition affected by match-fixing. It came out that 50% of suspicious matches in domestic football leagues occurred in the third tier or lower, which included regional and youth football.

One in every 384 esports games were flagged by the UFDS, with basketball being the next highest sport with one in every 498 games.

MD of Sportradar Integrity Services, Andreas Krannich, said: “We can take what we observed in 2021 and ask ourselves as fans of sport, what lessons can we learn? At Sportradar, we believe in adopting a progressive approach to integrity protection through bet monitoring and intelligence gathering.

“This has been proven to deliver sanctions against those involved in match-fixing. Preventative measures, such as educating athletes and stakeholders, are also crucially important in the long-term fight against match-fixing.”

The record amount of these alerts, Sportradar explained, coincided with an increasing betting turnover and “exposes the serious, ongoing threat match-fixing presents to the integrity of global sport at all levels”.

In the published report, the firm estimated that global betting turnover had reached €1.45trillion(£1.2trillion), with an approximation of €165m of that generated by match-fixing betting profit.

Despite this increase in suspicious betting activity last year, Sportsradar has reiterated its commitment to the integrity of global sporting events. To try and achieve this, the provider has been working alongside its partners to support 65 sanctions; 46 of those are sporting sanctions, 15 criminal sanctions and four sanctions that cover both sides.

These measures were implemented in 11 countries across football and tennis, with lifetime bans issued to eight athletes. Despite these efforts, the report has forecast that there will be more suspicious matches detected in 2022.