The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) reported 56 suspicious betting alerts to competent authorities in the first quarter of 2024.
The Q1 2024 total represents a 65% increase compared to the 34 alerts in Q4 2023.
There is also a 12% increase compared to the revised total of 50 alerts from the first quarter of last year.
Main data from the 1st quarter released by IBIA
All IBIA alerts are identified using customer account data from the entity’s members, which are more than 50 companies and 125 sports betting brands. In other words, IBIA is the largest integrity monitor of its kind in the world.
The 56 suspicious betting incidents in the first quarter concerned six sports, in 21 countries and five continents. Other key data for the first quarter of 2024 include:
- Football had the highest number of alerts per sport, with 24, representing a 50% increase from the 16 reported in Q4 2023 and a 60% increase from the 15 reported in Q1 2022.
- Turkey had the highest number of alerts per country, with 8 (five in football, two in tennis and one in basketball).
- 41% of all alerts in the first quarter were identified at sporting events held in Asia, with North and South America coming in second at 18% each.
- Only 4 alerts were identified regarding sporting events in Europe, which represents a 76% reduction compared to the 17 alerts in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Canada is the highlight of this first period
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “The first quarter saw an increase in the number of reported alerts, highlighting the ongoing challenge our members, sporting and regulatory authorities face with corrupt activities. Football and Asia dominated our Q1 report .”
“IBIA and its members have exclusive access to detailed data supporting global client account alerts. All continue to grow, expanding our world-leading market coverage.
Therefore, this account data provides evidentiary information that is vital for advancing investigations and imposing sanctions. The association is committed to continuing to work closely with stakeholders and providing this important evidence base.”
The Q1 report includes a focus on the availability of sports betting in Canada. The document makes a comparison between the licensing approach in Ontario and the monopoly approach in the rest of the country.
The IBIA recently released a report on the availability of sports betting products and highlighted Ontario as one of the top regulated gambling jurisdictions. Thus, the expected onshore pipeline for sports betting is 92% in 2024, with a forecast increase to 97% in 2028.
So, considering that the rest of Canada, together, is expected to have an onshore rate of around 11% in 2024, reaching 13% in 2028.
Global relevance of IBIA
Currently, IBIA represents more than 60% of licensed private sports betting operators in Ontario. While recently announced Glitnor is the newest operator to join the association in that province.
IBIA is a non-profit body that has no competitive conflicts with the provision of commercial services to other sectors. Operators run the entity to protect regulated sports betting markets against match-fixing.
IBIA’s global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool that detects and reports suspicious activity in regulated betting markets.
In other words, IBIA’s global monitoring network tracks transactional activities linked to individual customer accounts. Members have over $300 billion per year in betting turnover. They represent approximately 50% of the global regulated land-based and online sports betting sector, and more than 50% in the online sector alone.
IBIA’s 2023 annual health report detailed 184 alerts reported for the year, which represents a reduction of 101 (or 35%) from the revised 2022 number of 285 alerts.
Therefore, IBIA’s warnings contributed to the successful investigations and sanctions of 21 clubs, players and officials in 2023. This represents an increase from the 15 sanctioned in 2022.
So, if you want to access IBIA’s 1st quarter 2024 report, just click HERE to download it.
