With the rapid and strong growth of bookmakers around the world, one of the biggest problems to be tackled by the sports industry has certainly become the manipulation of results. According to data from its latest report, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), considered the leading entity on integrity for the licensed betting industry, pointed out that regulated online sports betting operators lose something close to US$25 million a year because of this harmful and criminal practice.
The number frightens and serves to reinforce the thesis that, in addition to sports, sports betting companies are also greatly harmed by manipulation.
“Contrary to popular imagination, bookmakers are the biggest victims when a sporting event outcome is manipulated. When a criminal manipulates the result or event of a match, it is common for them to inject high values into the odds (quotes) offered by the houses for such a result/event to occur. Thus, if the final result sought by the manipulator materializes, the bookmaker (which is not aware of the manipulation) must pay the corresponding prizes for the correctness of the bet to the manipulator - and this, in the long run, can configure a millionaire loss to the coffers of bookmakers,” explains Udo Seckelmann, a lawyer specializing in international sports law.
“The manipulation of results generates losses for several players. The most immediate, like the sports fan who begins to question the integrity of the game. The clubs, which sometimes see the whole year's project harmed. And the entities that organize the sport, as they suffer accusations of corruption over which they may not have any interference. But in addition to them, there are other less obvious stakeholders, such as sports betting operators,” says Rafael Marcondes, a lawyer specializing in sports law and columnist for Lei em Campo.
Marcondes explains that when there is manipulation of results, all the work done by bookmakers in relation to pricing goes down the drain. “Bookmakers invest a lot of resources in data analysis and studies to correctly price a bet (odd), so that the risk is correctly compensated. The manipulation of results interferes in the equation of risks and brings millionaire losses to operators,” he explains.
“For these reasons, bookmakers are very interested in investing in the integrity of the sport and combating match-fixing. If there is no uncertainty in the results, there will be no sports betting,” emphasizes Seckelmann.
One of the main challenges for the sports community and the professionals around it is to eradicate the activity of mafias or organized crime, where they use payment and/or extortion methods to influence the results of matches.
In its latest document, IBIA reported 76 suspicious betting cases to the relevant authorities during the third quarter of 2022. During this period, alerts covered eight different sports, namely: 33 tennis cases; 16 of eSports; 13 football; 10 with table tennis; 1 badminton; 1 snooker; 1 basketball; and 1 horse racing.
Geographically, Europe was the continent responsible for half of the suspected cases reported in the third half of this year, with 37, followed by Asia (8), South America (7), Africa (7) and North America (1). Oceania did not have any alerts during this period.
“Alerts for the quarter are at the higher end of the scale compared to previous years, but should be viewed against the substantial growth in membership of the association during the year. This served to increase global market coverage and alerts identified and reported, highlighting the beneficial impact of a global multi-operator betting integrity network,” said IBIA CEO Khalid Ali in the report.
“IBIA continues to work closely with its members and external stakeholders such as sports and regulators to ensure proper risk management processes are in place and encourages a zero-tolerance approach to handling sporting events and associated betting fraud,” he added.
Compared to the second quarter of this year, there was a 60% decrease in football alerts and in 29 countries the number of reported alerts dropped. Spain, Hungary and Poland recorded the most alerts in one country, five.
Finally, Marcondes says that manipulation is a very serious problem and that it ends up affecting the great potential that this market has in terms of revenue for countries.
“Without forgetting that the bad practice of agents that corrupt the sport, tarnishes a lawful activity and of great collection potential for the country, also harming Brazil. Not only for the clubs and institutions that organize the sport, by taking away the credibility of competitions, it also affects, in a drastic way, the sports betting companies,” concludes Marcondes.
Source: Lei em Campo
