Slight drop in suspicious betting alerts

ESSA revealed 37 cases of suspicious betting activity in the third quarter of 2016.

US.- Sports Betting Integrity (ESSA) announced a slight drop in suspicious activity in sports betting. Tennis is still the leading sport with illegal activity, having topped the statistics for seven consecutive quarters, accounting 84% of the alerts in 2016.

More than 30 cases have been accounted within the sport in the third quarter, whilst three cases have been related to football, and table tennis, volleyball and beach volley each showed one alert of suspicious betting activity.

“Our Q3 2016 integrity statistics follow much the same pattern as the previous six quarters, with tennis alerts far exceeding that of any other sport. Whilst the Tennis Integrity Unit has made some welcome additions to its investigatory team, the implementation of any wider recommendations unfortunately looks to be some way off, whilst alerts continue to rise,” said ESSA chairman Mike O’Kane.

O’Kane also said that the conclusions of the recently published report by the UKGC are relevant because they didn’t find any evidence “to show that the integrity risks of in-play betting are greater than pre-event betting.”