Pulse
Sportradar: tech investment key in the fight against sports corruption
By William - 6 January 2022
As part of G3’s deep dive examination into the integrity of sports and betting markets, Andy Cunningham, Director Global Partnerships, Integrity Services at Sportradar, details how the supplier is playing its part in the fight by continuing to invest in technology.
Andy, what new methods and schemes are criminals coming up with to manipulate the results of matches?
The Covid-19 pandemic led to match-fixers looking for new competitions to target when the vast majority of established sport ground to a halt, and the financial hardships brought about by Covid-19 has made sport more susceptible to corruption. In the past 20 months, we have seen first-hand how criminals are targeting all levels of sport, including competitions that were previously known to be low risk.
We are witnessing a new wave of more direct digital approaches to players and athletes, For instance, our Intelligence & Investigation team have helped sports governing bodies investigate several cases of individuals approaching athletes on social media, trying to engage them in match-fixing activity. This has been a growing trend over recent years.
The ease of access to athletes is greater than it has ever been and these platforms are breaking down the barriers previously in place between athletes and fans, but also unfortunately, those with corrupt intentions. Thankfully, many of these approaches are reported by athletes to the governing bodies, but this is not a ‘catch all’ situation, so sporting authorities must continue to address this topic in education and awareness raising with athletes.
What can be done to prevent match fixing? How do you keep up with these new methods and flag up suspicious activities?
In an ideal world, match-fixing and betting related corruption would be eliminated from all sports, but the reality is – and what we’ve seen for many years now – is that there are always going to be people searching for new ways to profit from this illegal activity.
At Sportradar we continue to play our part in the fight against this cancer and are continuing to invest in evolving our technology to give the maximum chance of detecting attempts to corrupt sport. This includes further utilising Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology to sift through and analyse billions of data sets from global betting markets. Our Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) has detected over 1,200 suspicious matches in the past 20 months, with over 750 to-date in 2021.
Our approach to tackling some of the newer threats that are happening on social media and online includes utilising open-source intelligence investigations to assist investigating authorities to uncover those behind the online accounts who approach and corrupt athletes, tracing them to real world identities. We can then make a series of recommendations to the organisers based on the information we uncover and support them to pursue a course of action.
Could you tell us more about Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) and how it works?
The UFDS is the core bet monitoring system that has detected match-fixing for over 15 years and been verified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport(CAS) as ‘reliable evidence.’ It is our conviction that the UFDS should be universally available for all, irrespective of resources available. This is why as of October 2021, the UFDS service is offered free of charge to ALL of sport. The UFDS is today used by more than 100 sporting body partners globally from over 25 different sports.
Our UFDS tracks betting patterns from global betting markets, which are monitored in real- time. Using a combination of machine learning and algorithms alongside our team of expert integrity analysts, we search for irregularities in the betting markets that might indicate corruption.
If, for example, we see a sudden shift in the lines for a match that cannot be reasonably explained, that is something we will look into further to determine whether or not there is a suspicion the match has been targeted for betting manipulation. Once we determine that a match is indeed suspicious, we will escalate it to our sports league and federation partners.
Regulators in some jurisdictions are looking to restrict betting on certain events in game in the belief that it will help undermine the efforts of corrupt elements in sports. Is this the right approach do you think?
Restricting betting opportunities in regulated frameworks runs the risk of driving consumers to place their bets or force them to wager with unregulated offshore sportsbooks that satisfy their betting needs. Bringing as much betting as possible into the regulated frameworks and the protections and integrity monitoring technology this brings ultimately increases the chances of detecting attempts to fix sport.
With intelligence that spots anomalies in the blink of an eye, technology plays a crucial role in protecting both consumers and athletes from match-fixing and betting-related corruption.
Could AI play a greater role in preventing match manipulation in the future?
Sportradar continuously invests in the development of the UFDS through tailored product iterations, new features and markets for each monitored sport. This includes utilising Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology to sift through and analyse billions of data sets from global betting markets.
To that end, Sportradar has dedicated data scientists who have developed and maintained a machine-learning algorithms to support automated detection of suspicious odds movements across the industry. Additionally, to ensure data-driven decision making, Sportradar uses a data analytics platform to help identify and map match-fixing trends worldwide.
Do you think match fixing is becoming more prevalent, or is the industry just getting better at detecting it?
Based on analysis from our UFDS, there has been a steady evolution in match-fixing over the years. Those who are fixing matches are diversifying the types of sports and competitions they choose to target. They’re also changing the way they initiate contact with athletes, for example, in the digital realm.
Because of the growth in match-fixing techniques and the increased level of sophistication deployed by match-fixers, we decided to offer our UFDS for free to sports organisations and leagues around the globe to help tackle the issue. Sportradar has a strong commitment to supporting the sustainability of global sports and using data and technology for good.
Esports is one area that has been a key target for fixers in recent years, which has led to a rapid increase in the number of suspicious matches reported. Over 70 suspicious matches have been detected by the UFDS since April last year, with more than 40 of those suspicious matches identified since January this year.
Are there any countries or particular sports which you see as high risk when it comes to match fixing?
In addition to the suspicious soccer and esports matches detected this year, Sportradar’s UFDS has detected suspicious activity in Tennis: 45 matches; Basketball: 26; Table Tennis: 11; Ice Hockey: 10; Cricket: 6, while suspicious activity has also been identified in Volleyball, Handball, and Beach Volleyball.
On a global level, the UFDS has detected 475 suspicious matches in Europe so far this year, with Latin America recording 143 suspicious matches in the same period. That’s followed by the Asia Pacific region with 94, Africa with 46, 12 in the Middle East and 9 in North America since the start of January 2021.
Sportradar Integrity Services is a leading supplier of monitoring, intelligence, education, and consultancy solutions for sports organisations, state authorities, and law enforcement agencies to support them in the fight against match-fixing and corruption.
Trusted and relied on by more than 100 sports’ governing bodies and leagues around the world and staffed with executives who have implemented integrity policies for the world’s largest sports bodies and leagues, it is firmly established as a market leader in the field of sporting integrity.
