The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) reported 236 suspicious betting cases to the relevant authorities over the past year, with 69 alerts in the fourth quarter alone. This amount recorded in 2021 corresponds to a drop of 13% compared to the 270 cases in 2020.
The 2021 data is in line with recent years, with the average alerts at 240 between 2018 and 2020. Last year’s notifications included 13 sports and 49 different countries, with tennis and football continuing to top the list. Europe also continued to provide the highest number of alerts with half of the year’s total.
IBIA CEO reviews 2021 results
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Another challenging year for the industry has passed with the specter of Covid-19 and its impact on sporting events declining and, hopefully, an endgame potential in sight. It is therefore celebrated that the alerts for 2021 showed a downward trend and a return to pre-Covid numbers”.
The CEO of IBIA also stressed that the “challenges, however, persist, notably with the growth of private sporting events and the establishment of integrity protocols at the levels observed in traditional sports entities. The association is working with various stakeholders in this area to improve integrity provisions.”
Furthermore, Ali pointed out that the risks of “corruption in betting remain and, as the Optimum Betting Market report published last year highlighted, this equates to around $25 million a year in lost revenue for the regulated betting industry globally. ”.
And, he added: “It is welcome that the requirement that operators be part of an integrity monitoring system has gained traction in the US and has been endorsed in Sweden, to add to existing requirements in the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. The Ontario approach is particularly noteworthy and is a model of best practice. The association looks forward to working with a wider range of integrity operators as a result.”
Other important data for 2021:
- 80 – Total tennis alerts, down 18% from the 98 reported in 2020;
- 66 – Football alerts, an 8% increase from 2021 and the highest annual number reported;
- 27 – Alerts on sporting events in Russia, the highest number for a single country in 2021;
- 11 – Successful sports or criminal sanctions during 2021 from IBIA alerts;
- 10 – Alerts reported in North America, down 54% compared to 22 reported in 2020;
- In the five-year period from 2017 to 2021, IBIA reported 1,222 alerts across 19 sports and 101 countries.
Mission of the International Betting Integrity Association
The International Betting Integrity Association is the leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry. It is run by operators for operators, protecting its members from corruption through collective action. The monitoring platform is a highly effective anti-corruption tool that detects and reports suspicious activity in its members’ betting markets.
The association has long-standing information-sharing partnerships with major sports and gaming regulators to utilize its data and stop wrongdoing. It represents the sector in high-level policy discussion forums such as the IOC, the UN, the Council of Europe and the European Commission.
The association publishes quarterly and annual reports on health alerts reported through its monitoring and alerting platform.
