The Covid-19 pandemic is allowing criminals to increasingly target less popular leagues and cross new frontiers to manipulate results for betting, with around 160 suspicious matches in Asia over the past year, according to global sports technology firm Sportradar.
While the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus means that, overall, match-fixing is down on a global scale, it has not stopped criminals from trying to exploit vulnerable people and sports who are struggling to survive. And it’s only the “tip of the iceberg”.
Sportradar’s managing director for integrity services, Andreas Krannich, told the Post that its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) picked up suspicious activity in three countries that had no previous history of inherent match-fixing – Oman, United Arab Emirates and Tajikistan.
In addition, around 60 per cent of the matches deemed suspicious will not be investigated because the sports and governing bodies involved are unaware of it or lack the means to follow up.
“In the 15 years since we launched the UFDS, we have seen that match-fixing is not only football and cricket. It’s not only tennis. It’s all major sports. It’s basketball, it’s esports, it’s volleyball,” said Krannich, whose firm has around 80 partners covering 26 sports.
“And there are countries where we never had issues with before. And all these sports we are not covering on a regular basis. Therefore, what we detect is definitely the tip of the iceberg. And it’s a global trend, not only in Asia.”
Sportradar covered more than 600,000 matches globally in 2020 involving more than 1,000 competitions. Their UFDS detected 526 “escalated” matches involving football, basketball, esports, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, ice hockey, handball, cricket and beach volleyball.
It has resulted in 102 sporting sanctions and nine criminal convictions. However, Krannich said many sports and governing bodies who are not Sportradar partners are missing out.
Krannich said to help bodies combat match-fixing, Sportradar is offering free use of its core UFDS service, unconditionally and for an unlimited time.
“The fact that 60 per cent of the suspicious matches involved non-partners is a shocking number,” said Krannich. “Covid-19 is a game-changer and if we really want to fight back against this cancer of match-fixing we have to change something and do something unexpected.
“There is no hidden agenda, it’s really an investment from our side,” added Krannich, who said it may cost up to US$1 million to fit sporting bodies and leagues with the core technology of their UFDS.
Sportradar’s 80 contracted partners that use the system receive alerts of suspicious matches as well as follow-up support in terms of investigation, links to law enforcement and other services that may lead to a criminal conviction.
However, the free service offered will provide only the alert system and it is then up to the body or league to follow up.
“We monitor 600,000 matches a year, more than 7 billion data sets a day,” said Krannich, of the system that is approved by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “What you get is the software, this massive database, the monitoring intelligence technology behind it and 60-plus senior betting analysts who are looking into each and every suspicious match.
“If this was a Mercedes, we provide a proven, world-class engine for free,” added Krannich, who said the programme will start rolling out in October.
Krannich said the company can vouch for the 160 matches that were deemed suspicious, given the reliability of the UFDS that has helped to uncover match-fixing cases over the past 15 years.
These include the banning of three Laos players for life for their role in the 4-0 defeat by Hong Kong in an international in October, 2017 and criminal proceedings against five Nepali players for fixing matches at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea.
“We never have a false positive,” he said. “If we announce a match has been manipulated for betting purposes, we are 110 per cent sure. Those 160 we quoted, it’s where I can put my hand into the fire and say it’s so obvious. It’s raining outside and you know the floor is getting wet.
“The match-fixers are taking a very logical approach. They are identifying people and sports who are much more vulnerable because of the financial crisis.”
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