The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has released its Q1 Integrity Report. The association’s integrity report highlighted a critical need for integrity solutions in Latin America as Brazil prepares to introduce regulated sports betting.
It emphasizes the role that IBIA member operators can play in detecting and deterring manipulation in sports.
The Q1 report recorded 40 instances of suspicious betting activity internationally. These involved nine sports in 22 countries. Football accounted for the highest number of alerts reported globally, from 15 to 38% of all alerts in the quarter.
Tennis generated 12 alerts, half of last year’s quarterly average. In terms of countries, Spain produced the highest number of alerts (eight, equal to the total number of alerts about Spanish events in the whole of 2022).
Focus on Sports Betting Integrity in Latin America
The Q1 report also includes a targeted analysis of alerts pertaining to the Latin American market. There were 105 suspicious betting alerts in the region from 2018 to 2022. Brazil accounted for almost a third of these (31%, or 33 alerts).
The Dominican Republic and Mexico (10 percent each) and Argentina and Peru (9 percent each) followed. Football bets accounted for 63% of alerts in Brazil, followed by tennis (21%). The IBIA warned that amid the “rapid growth of the Brazilian sports betting market, it is vital to prioritize integrity measures and ensure the long-term sustainability and credibility of the sector”.
IBIA CEO Khalid Ali said: “All relevant stakeholders – betting operators, policy makers, regulators and sports – have an important role to play in ensuring that Brazil reaps the full benefits of a dynamic and competitive market. of regulated sports betting, reducing the risks of match fixing.”
IBIA members represent nearly 50% of all international commercial online betting worldwide, comprising operators with a combined sports betting turnover of US$137 billion. In its 2022 report, the IBIA reported 268 alerts made to the sport’s governing bodies – a 14% increase from 2021 and also higher than the 230 alerts reported in 2020.
Europe remained the region that saw the most alerts, accounting for 126 or 50% of all alerts. This compares to 51 alerts in Asia, 25 in Africa, 22 in North America, 19 in South America and one in Australia. There were alerts for 14 sports and 61 countries. Tennis was responsible for 102, against 80 in 2021, and football for 67 (66 in 2021).
