Sportsradar Encourages Sports Associations to Fight Against Rigged Games
Recently, scandals involving match-fixing have shaken up the world of sports, with incidents in soccer and cricket gaining particular attention. In response, sports data provider Sportradar has published a thorough examination of the causes and solutions for this issue.
The primary type of corruption in sports is known as "spot-fixing." This occurs when a player tries to influence a specific part of a game, such as deliberately giving away a corner or receiving a yellow card, rather than attempting to alter the overall score. While fixing the outcome of a match is more challenging and can raise more suspicions, it has happened on rare occasions. For instance, the unusual 14-3 defeat of Bagheria over Borgata Terrenove in the Italian lower leagues, where the away team accidentally scored eight own goals.
The growth of in-play online betting, which allows you to bet on almost every aspect of a match, has made exploiting these seemingly harmless moments in games easier in recent years. Dishonest gambling syndicates, frequently from the Far East, are taking advantage of this trend.
Lower Leagues
Spot-fixing commonly takes place in lower leagues where it's more likely to go unnoticed and where players might be more vulnerable to bribery due to lower salaries. Recall the recent arrests of six Preston North End players in League One of the English Football League (third tier in English soccer) in connection with a spot-fixing investigation. However, on rare occasions, spot-fixing appears on a global scale, like when Pakistan's national cricket team fast bowler Mohammad Amir received a five-year ban for his role in a scheme to bowl several "no-balls" during the Lord's Test against England in 2010.
"The number of bookmakers has grown, along with the variety of sports available for betting and the types of odds," the Sportradar paper explains. "Bookmakers and their agents around the world accept large bets – even over the phone from fixers on the very playing field where the sport is being played."
Fraud Detection System
During the past eight months, Sportradar's security division compiled this paper, focusing on the company's Fraud Detection System, which was employed to identify and analyze spot-fixing. Developed alongside European football governing body UEFA, FDS aims to track betting odds and monitor suspicious patterns across the globe. Sportradar emphasizes the critical role that sports organizations must play in combating manipulation:
"To keep up with the technological advances, sports federations must respond comprehensively. No matter what motivates match-fixers, manipulation in sports is a criminal act that must be dealt with," said Sportradar.
Currently, FDS monitors all UEFA member states – that's over 31,000 games from 53 countries, along with international competitions. Although Sportradar acknowledges that they don't have all the solutions, they believe their research paper to be the most "informative and explanatory" analysis of match-fixing to date.
"The victims of manipulation are always the same: sports federations losing credibility, fans misled by deceitful competitions, betting companies paying out money won by criminal activity, and betted on bettors who lost money under false pretenses of a fair and rule-abiding contest," emphasizes Sportradar.
To effectively combat match-fixing, sporting federations, law enforcement, and the betting industry must work together. The FDS serves as the industry standard for tracking and logging this fraudulent behavior.
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