SPORTS BETTING

Austria – Austrian Football Federation partners with Sportradar Integrity Services

By Lewis - 21 May 2021

The Austrian Football Federation (ÖFB) has signed a six-year agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services to monitor and safeguard the integrity of its domestic football competitions.

Under the agreement, Sportradar will monitor more than 700 matches per season from the Austrian Regional Leagues using its bet monitoring solution, the Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS).

The UFDS is an advanced and proven bet monitoring system, which has been independently assessed and verified by recognised experts in the field of sports betting and integrity.

A global team of integrity experts analyse irregular betting patterns, which are identified through sophisticated mathematical models and machine learning algorithms. Any suspicious matches are reported to partners, providing essential visibility into worldwide match-fixing.

Last year, Sportradar detected over 500 suspicious matches across global sport and has reported over 5,400 suspicious matches in the past 15 years.

Dr. Thomas Hollerer, ÖFB General Secretary, commented: “We recognise that match-fixing and other integrity issues present a clear and present danger in today’s sporting landscape and the ÖFB takes its obligations to this matter very seriously.

“By working with Sportradar Integrity Services to monitor our competitions through its UFDS solution, we will have valuable oversight of global betting markets offered on our games.

“Sportradar has a proven track record in the field of sports integrity and the depth of its bet monitoring capabilities will help to support our overall integrity programme over the next six years.”

Andreas Krannich, Managing Director Sportradar Integrity Services, added: “We are delighted to be working alongside the ÖFB and offering our expertise to help protect its domestic football matches against integrity related threats.

“In recent years, Sportradar has witnessed growing integrity issues across global football at lower levels of competition. The conditions and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a heightened level of risk across global football and strong integrity measures are needed now more than ever.

“As a global leader in sports integrity services, we make it our top priority to work alongside our partners and support an effective framework to help minimise integrity related issues.

“We commend the ÖFB for their commitment to upholding the integrity of football within its competitions, through this UFDS agreement, and we look forward to lending our assistance to their integrity programme over the years ahead.”