“When talking about sport, it is important to remember that until five years ago, manipulation only involved the result (win, draw or defeat). Today, manipulation is about [individual] actions. We even need to give it a correct name,” said Guilherme Buso, Brazil account executive at Genius Sports, highlighting that “there is a new type of manipulation not yet understood by athletes.”
In a recent interview with GMB, the executive stated that players often don't think they are manipulating a result by receiving a card or making a corner. At Confut he reinforced this concept and highlighted that “by eliminating the unpredictability of the match, it is manipulating.”
Genius is a global leader in data, technology and integrity services, with partnerships involving the main sports leagues and confederations across the planet, including the NFL, Premier League and German Football Federation. In Brazil, it delivers its data services to the National Basketball League, the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation and the National Futsal League.
Education and protection
Along these lines, João Santos, from Stats Perform, points to education as a crucial factor in combating the practice of manipulation. “The athlete needs to know that he is helping in the betting manipulation scheme when he performs an act that interferes with the result of a match. Also, it doesn't enter his head that both he and his family can't gamble.”
“This ‘boom’ of Brasileirão players involved in manipulation has already happened in several countries and this was resolved with the regulation of the sector. Therefore, it is important that the same happens in Brazil so that the market develops in a correct and controlled way,” he highlighted.
“Regulation brings rules for bookmakers and protection for bettors. But this is the moment, because even without the regulation having been launched, sports entities can and should start educating athletes, coaches and referees,” he added.
Exemplary punishment
Experts argue that, in addition to education, it is important to have exemplary punishment to combat betting manipulation and that companies that examine sports integrity have a fundamental role to curb this type of action through their modern tools to identify and report criminal practices.
“The player has to understand that he will be caught, as the fraud detection system is increasingly advanced, including the use of AI,” pointed out Robson Silveira, LatAm sponsorship director at Sportradar, which already operates in several regulated regions and, in Latin America, has a contract for audio and video rights and sports betting data for the main competitions of Conmebol, such as Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.
“To give you an idea, our AI-based system managed to catch 40% of the betting manipulations that took place last year. There were more than 1,200 in all sports. And the system does not act alone. When pointing out any type of suspicion, our analysts will examine the indication and inform the entity, as has already occurred on several occasions here in Brazil,” said Robson Silveira.
Source: GMB
