Covid-19 pandemic has escalated match-fixing, new sports targeted: Sportradar

Panaji: The risk of more matches being fixed during the coronavirus pandemic is real.

From among the over 600,000 matches that

Sportradar

monitored across 1,000 plus leagues and competitions in 26 different sports last year, over 60 per cent were from sports they do not currently monitor formally for a partner.

“It’s a global trend,” said Andreas Krannich, managing director of integrity services for Sportradar, experts in sporting integrity. “We are quite shocked. It’s the tip of the iceberg. These matches were in sports such as basketball, cricket, esports and volleyball.”

That’s not all.

In 2020, Sportradar detected suspicious activity in three Asian countries that has never previously had any indication of

match-fixing

.

Krannich said the Covid-19 pandemic has seen the situation escalate, as criminals take advantage of a market that is in need of income at all levels.

“We have observed that the environment and challenges created by the pandemic has led individuals and entities who direct, facilitate, or support illicit activities in sports, like match-fixing, to become more aggressive and diverse in their activities.

“This includes, but is not limited to, targeting sports where the previous threat of match-fixing was considered very low and making more direct digital approaches to players and athletes,” said Krannich.

The alarming rise in match-fixing has prompted Sportradar to launch the Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), a service that will be provided for free to any sports federation or league worldwide.

The UFDS will be launched in October and Sportradar will speak with sporting bodies across the world so that they can understand the service being offered.

“We believe that integrity is fundamental to public confidence in sport, and that wrongdoing at any tier of competition affects all levels of sports and its fans,” CEO Carsten Koerl said in a statement. “We are continuing to upscale our technology and operation to handle this considerable undertaking. As well as providing it to new partners, we have already set about discussing and implementing the UFDS with our 70 plus existing FDS partners.”

Last year, Sportradar red-flagged six matches in the Goa Professional League (GPL) for “suspicious betting patterns indicative of match manipulation”.

The London-based company had offered to help the Goa

Football

Association to investigate match-fixing. The GFA, however, did not act and started its inquiry only after a year. The ethics committee summoned 22 players and coaches on Saturday as part of its probe.

Suspicions of matches being fixed have continued this season too with the GFA telling its executive committee members and clubs that “there are strong indications of matches being fixed and/or otherwise manipulated for betting purposes.”