GLMS reports slight rise in suspicious betting reports in 2021

The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) has published its annual activity report for 2021.

Switzerland.- The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) has published its 2021 annual activity report on its intelligence unit’s work to protect sports integrity.

It noted that the year included major events such as the UEFA 2020 Championships, the Tokyo Olympic Games and the inaugural FIFA Men’s Arab Cup.

GLMS generated 1,402 alerts in the 12 months, an increase from 1,113 suspicious betting alerts in 2020.

Of those alerts, 1,053 were generated by GLMS teams as pre-event warnings urging its 40 partner members to be on the alert for suspicious activity.

Meanwhile, 82 alerts stemmed from in-play odds changes and 267 alerts were raised after events.

In terms of risk, 91 alerts were classed as red for high risk. Some 43 of those were generated pre-match or due to in-play events. Yellow (mid-risk) accounted for 331 alerts and green (low-risk) 747.

Football was again the sport responsible for the largest number of alerts at 1,005, more than half of them in Europe. Basketball followed with 167 alerts, again more than half stemming from European leagues. The GLMS prepared 51 reports, 31 reports of them commissioned to pass to authorities for investigation.

With 234 and 213 reports respectively, Hungary and the Netherlands were the countries in which GLMS members had the “most active engagement”.

GLMS president Ludovico Calvi said: “Every single day there is a new incident of sport competition manipulation reported, this has been particularly true since the outbreak of the pandemic. The sport ecosystem has never been so vulnerable as today and this makes match-fixing one the greatest threats to modern sport.”