Exclusive IBIA betting monitoring network contributes to WPBSA investigation

The International Association for Integrity of Betting (IBIA), a world-leading organization for sports integrity, contributed to the sanctioning of 10 Chinese professional snooker players by the World Pool and Snooker Association (WPBSA) for various irregularities related to the manipulation of snooker matches.

The sanctions follow the provision of detailed betting data provided by the IBIA and its members to the WPBSA, which triggered the initial investigation. The organization has identified suspicious activity in the following 2022 matches as part of the investigation.

The list of players involved and their respective punishments:

  • Aaron Hill v Zhao Jianbo (Northern Irish Open Qualifiers)
  • Bai Langning vs Zhou Xintong (British Open)
  • Chang Binyu vs Jamie Jones (British Open)
  • Yuan Sinjun v Jimmy White (Northern Irish Open Qualifiers)
  • Lu Ning v Robert Milkins (European Masters Qualifiers)

Reacting to news of the verdict, Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “We would like to congratulate WPBSA for successfully prosecuting this case. It highlights the vital role played by well-regulated betting markets in deterring corruption and sends a very clear message to all athletes about the risks of engaging in match-fixing.”

The IBIA is committed to sharing data with sports, regulators and law enforcement authorities to enable these bodies to identify, investigate and prosecute match-fixers. What sets IBIA apart from commercial monitoring systems is its ability to track transactional activity linked to individual consumer accounts, rather than analyzing simple probability movements.

No other sports integrity solution can provide access to IBIA member data, which covers over $137 billion in sports betting revenue per year and over 120 sports betting brands, making IBIA the largest and most effective sports betting network integrity of its nature globally.

Ali added: “IBIA responsible regulated betting operators have a significant incentive to help crack down on match-fixing, which aims to defraud these companies. Our market leading position allows us to provide highly accurate analysis and effective deterrence against corruption in the regulated sports betting market. IBIA is committed to being at the forefront of this preventive action globally.”

Market study produced by IBIA

IBIA‘s ‘Optimum Betting market study’, published in 2021, confirms that a balanced and efficient regulation of sports betting is part of the solution to match-fixing related to sports betting.

Suspicious betting and potential match-fixing on regulated markets represent a very small proportion of all sporting events worldwide. The market report found that there were no suspicious betting alerts on 99.96% of the 650,000 sporting events offered by IBIA members annually between 2017-2020.