IBIA reports slight increase in betting integrity alerts
The number of betting integrity alerts reported by the IBIA for the first quarter rose slightly year-on-year to 64.
Belgium.- The International Betting Integrity Association reported 64 suspicious betting events to authorities in the first quarter of 2021.
The number is a slight increase from the 61 events reported in the same quarter last year, but down from the 68 alerts in the final quarter of 2020.
Tennis remained the source of the majority of the alerts, accounting for 18 betting integrity alerts in the quarter. Six of those were reported to the International Tennis Integrity Agency as intelligence reports since they were not events sanctioned by the principal tennis tours.
Esports overtook football as the sport responsible for the second-highest number of betting integrity alerts, with 17 alerts raised in the quarter.
There were 12 alerts for football, seven for table tennis, five for basketball, four for volleyball and just one for horse racing.
The alerts came from 20 countries, with Europe accounting for 29 alerts, including 10 from Russia and six from Bulgaria.
There were 13 reports on events in Asia, six of them involving tennis. In Africa and South America, there were three and two alerts respectively, all of them involving tennis matches. There were no alerts reported in North America or Australasia.
In 2020, the IBIA reported a 48 per cent increase in suspicious betting alerts, including a 25 per cent increase in alerts relating to football.
IBIA chief executive, Khalid Ali, said. “After a difficult 2020, many operators appear to be close to normality in terms of their pre-pandemic market offering.
“This is reflected in the alert numbers and geographical spread for Q1, with a refocus on those sports that have traditionally and numerically dominated the betting offer globally, namely tennis and football.
“The association and its members continue to work closely with those sports, and indeed all sports that wish to engage with us, to identify potential corruption and to seek robust sanctions to punish and deter such illicit activity.”
See also: IBIA and All-In Diversity Project strike partnership
