IBIA reports decrease in suspicious betting alerts
IBIA has reported a fall in suspicious betting alerts in 2019, with the majority of them being in the fourth quarter.
Belgium.- The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has reported 183 cases of suspicious betting in 2019. 45 of those cases were reported in the last quarter of last year.
The annual total represents a 31% fall in alerts from 2018, with tennis accounting for the vast majority of that decline. Tennis (101) and football (49) constituted 82% of all alerts reported during 2019, with Europe (48%) and Asia (28%) maintaining their positions as the primary locations of the sports events on which alerts were generated during that period.
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “The decline in alerts is very welcome, especially as this is primarily a result of an improved level of integrity in ITF tennis, which has been the subject of particular scrutiny in recent years. However, there remains a clear threat from criminals intent on manipulating sport to defraud operators. Such illicit organised and targeted action has an impact on the reputation and financial well-being of sports and reputable betting operators alike.”
He added: “We continue to work closely with sports and our members to reduce that threat and to identify and punish such corruption, utilising the world’s largest operator-run and customer data led integrity system. Our rebranding and global repositioning in 2019 has aided our expansion with operators increasingly recognising the value and business necessity of engaging in collective action to protect their products against the loss of revenue resulting from betting corruption.”
IBIA signed agreement with the MGA
IBIA and the Malta Gaming Authority’s (MGA) recently created a Sports Integrity Unit, which has highlighted the commitment to protecting consumers, sports and betting markets from corruption with the signing of a betting integrity information-sharing agreement, which came into force in December.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is the first agreement between the MGA’s new Unit and a betting monitoring system. It underlines the desire of both parties to tackle betting-related corruption.
