Brazil is an extremely vulnerable country for manipulation of results and sporting events, for several reasons. Thousands of matches in different sports taking place every year, little supervision, low wages for athletes, little investment in education for sports participants, deregulated sports betting market, little investment by the Government and sports entities in combating criminal conduct related to the match -fixing, among others.
The sum of these vulnerabilities ends up attracting criminals – Brazilians and foreigners – to approach athletes who work in Brazil for the purpose of manipulating results, as this is now seen as a “crime with an interesting risk-benefit ratio”, since the probability of being punished is relatively low compared to other crimes.
Identifying and combating match-fixing is not an easy task. For this, the cooperation of various public and private entities is required so that preventive and repressive measures are taken in order to mitigate and punish such criminal conduct. One of the measures that has been adopted by some state football federations in Brazil is the hiring of sports betting integrity and monitoring services, such as those provided by the British company Genius Sports.
Genius Sports is a technology and data collection company providing integrity services to numerous leagues and associations around the world, including the English Premier League. With its advanced technology and huge database, it manages to monitor in real time the markets offered by bookmakers globally, allowing it to identify when the volume of bets on any event is out of line with the usual and, with that, notify the competent authorities to further investigation into the possibility that a sporting event is being manipulated.
The matches of the Campeonato Brasileiro – Série B 2022, investigated by the Public Ministry of Goiás on suspicion of manipulation, were analyzed by Genius Sports and the reports presented the following results:
Sampaio Correa vs Londrina
After a thorough review of the bets placed on the professional football match on November 5, 2022, between the clubs Sampaio Correa and Londrina, we discovered the veracity of the following facts:
– There were high bets in bookmakers before the start of the match, including those operating illegally in Asia, for Sampaio Corrêa to win by at least 1 (one) goal difference, being more likely that the club would win by, at least, two goals difference;
– High bets were also made for Sampaio Corrêa to win the match (with a sustainable rate);
– Before and during the match there were high volumes of bets so that at least 3 (three) goals were scored;
– Mauricio Patrini Pinto missed a penalty in favor of Londrina in the 25th minute of the match (given the aforementioned bets, it may be considered suspect);
– High bets were observed for the home team to be winning until the break of the match, as well as for there to be two goals converted in the first half;
– Our trading team canceled the match midway through the first half due to concerns;
– With the exception of bets placed at halftime (as per the last topic), the other bets were successful, as Sampaio Corrêa won by 2-1 (result at halftime: 0-1).
“In that sense, such a match definitely merits further investigation.”
Criciuma vs Tombense
– Half-time markets were disproportionately targeted by bettors, indicating that the half-time outcome of the match may have been influenced;
– A well-known bookmaker removed their half-time markets in the middle of the first half;
– Another betting platform presented a 2.5 times greater volume of bets for Criciúma to win at halftime compared to Criciúma’s victory at the end of the match (without logic in most scenarios).
– Result at half-time: 1-0 (successful bets)
Vila Nova FC vs Sport Club do Recife
– Huge bets for Sport Club do Recife to win (implied probability of success increased by at least 15% across the industry);
– 6 (six) players expelled from Sport Club do Recife;
– Unsuccessful bets (End of match: 0-0). However, this is a very unusual game;
“Tomorrow we will provide additional information about Brazilian football.”
Monitoring reports serve to assist in the investigation of suspected cases of manipulation by presenting objective data on the betting volumes of the respective matches. Thus, they are repressive measures that, cumulatively with the in-depth investigation of the concrete case, become fundamental for the punishment of the individuals involved in the manipulation.
Identifying suspected cases is the first step, so without global betting monitoring it would be almost impossible to fight match-fixing. The expectation is that Brazil realizes the need to seriously combat this harmful practice and take effective measures to protect the integrity of the national sport.
Bichara Abidão Neto
Udo Seckelmann
Lawyers
Source: Leí em campo
