Sportradar Report Shows Decline in Suspicious Sports Betting in U.S.

The issues surrounding potential cheating in the legal sports betting world have existed since the first wager was taken on a sporting event. The problems still exist today – and have even been heightened with the explosion in legal sports betting taking place around the world.

Sportradar Integrity Services, tasked with sports integrity monitoring and intelligence around the world, is out with its second annual report on the state of corruption and match-fixing around the globe. And there's both good and bad news in the 2022 report, with the U.S. scene reporting a decline in suspicious sports betting activity in 2022 and other legal sports betting countries seeing a spike in cheating.

The Sportradar study

Sportradar’s proprietary technology was used to generate its "Betting Corruption and Match-fixing in 2022" report. According to the company: "The application of this technology in the system has increased the amount of data points processed for every single match the company monitors to 500+ including odds, turnover, and statistical data related to the game state."

Sportradar looked at 850,000 matches in 92 countries around the world and concentrated on 12 sports to make up the annual report. It found examples of sports betting corruption and match-fixing, or what the company deems "suspicious activity", in 1,212 contests.

What that means is that examples of cheating at relatively low. According to the research, 99.5% of all sporting events that they analyzed are clean - free from any match-fixing, or suspicious activity. None of the sports under the microscope had a more than 1% ratio of sketchy activity.

Year-over-year global increase

A troubling stat emerged out of the Sportradar annual report on Betting Corruption and Match-Fixing in 2022. The number of flagged sporting events around the world jumped 34%, although the report does outline the fact that just 0.5% of matches analysed showed suspicious activity.

Is the increase simply a matter of increased cheating on a global scale? Mayble not. Artificial Intelligence (AI) improvements within the company's software has ramped up Sportradar's ability to flag suspicious activity.

According to Sportradar Managing Director Andreas Krannich: “Our technology enables us to monitor more matches on a deeper level, providing more precise and accurate insights to help aid partners, clients, and the wider sports industry in efforts to safeguard sporting events from corruption.”

U.S. strong compared to global numbers

Despite the 34% global increase in flagged suspicious activity, the North American legal sports betting scene showed a decrease in overall corruption and match-fixing.

North America experienced a 25% decline in suspicious sports betting activity in 2022. Regulation and the launch of new markets, complete with stringent laws, which have drawn on experience, have been credited in large part to the marked decline in sports betting cheating.

By comparison, Africa saw a troubling 82% increase in suspicious sports betting activity when compared to 2021. The European region reported 630 incidents of suspicious matches, while Asia had 240 and South America had 225. Only North America and the Oceanic regions reported a decline in suspicious sports betting activity.

Soccer the biggest culprit

Global increases in sports betting and corruption can be attributed to the sports of soccer, which saw an increase from 695 incidents of corrupt sports betting practices in 2021 to 775 in 2022. More than 50% of soccer’s suspicious sports betting activity came from lower level matches, which included regional games and youth competitions.

Basketball was next on the list, with tennis coming in as the third-most fixed sport.

In North America, it was basketball that Sportradar identified as the most corrupt, or match-fixed, sports. The report cited 220 incidents of suspicious sports betting activity in 2022, up 250% from 2021.