Last year's national competition was once again discussed because of accusations from the American John Textor, who manages football at Botafogo. Based on an artificial intelligence report from the company Good Game!, which analyzes the behavior of athletes and referees, he pointed out that there was manipulation in a series of games.
Among these matches are São Paulo's 5-0 defeat to Palmeiras, who would be the champions, and Flamengo's 2-1 victory over Botafogo, which took the lead before falling down the table. Textor took these accusations to the Federal Senate, last Monday (22), at the Sports Betting CPI.
The owner of Botafogo's SAF did not state that sports betting was the cause of the manipulations. The Good Game! method, he declared, "tells how games were rigged, not why."
According to Carsten Koerl, from a betting point of view, there were no abnormalities. "I understand that it was not the preferred result for a team owner. But our system did not detect evidence of manipulation," the Sportradar executive told Folha, during his first visit to Brazil.
Sportradar has partnerships with entities such as FIFA (International Football Federation), Uefa (Union of European Football Federations) and Conmebol (South American Football Confederation). It also works with the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and gave him a report according to which there is suspicion of manipulation in 109 matches held in the country last year, but none of them in the Brazilian Championship or the Copa do Brasil.
Of the total number of games analyzed, 15 are from competitions organized by the CBF: one from the Brazilian Series B, 13 from the Series D and one from the Copa Verde.
"We are happy to have the contract with CBF, but it is something we need to develop further. It is a starting point. We want to expand the scope," stated the businessman.
A partner of the Brazilian confederation since 2018, Sportradar analyzes atypical movements on betting sites that may indicate manipulation. The work is carried out, above all, with artificial intelligence tools, but is carried out by professionals who carry out an investigation after indicating the system.
"It's much more important to analyze liquidity flows and see from betting behaviors whether there is anyone who used them," Koerl said. "I was a bad amateur player," he acknowledged, before adding that the experience taught him that there are several factors that can influence a person's behavior on the field, such as overload of activity or their physical condition.
Therefore, the businessman noted, "it is a wrong way to analyze manipulations [of results] based on players' physical standards."
Carsten Koerl was in the country to participate in BiS SiGMA Americas, an event that brought together the main companies and entities linked to the sports betting sector in Latin America.
In addition to sharing his expertise, he traveled to Brazil to understand how the football market works in the country, especially the relationships between clubs, associations and federations: "For someone accustomed to the European system, it is not easy to understand how Brazilian football is organized."
Before talking to the reporter in the conference room of a hotel in Jardins, the German was meeting with a team of Brazilian lawyers, hired to help him understand the scenario based on the legislation approved in the country for sports betting.
"Brazil is a very important market worldwide. I think the law is addressing most areas,” stated Koerl.
In December last year, the National Congress concluded voting on the bill that regulates fixed-rate betting and also the authorization for online casinos. The proposal has already been sanctioned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
At the end of January, the federal government announced the creation of the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, which will be responsible for regulating and monitoring the so-called "bets" market and online games. The new secretariat will be linked to the Ministry of Finance and will have three other sub-secretariats.
According to Koerl, the next step to making regulation more robust is to implement systems to comply with the rules and control the market. For him, it is also necessary to invest in technological infrastructure, "which is an issue that has not yet been resolved," in addition to defining the extent to which sports entities can act.
"These are the three clusters [groupings] where I think, in the coming months, there will be significant time invested."
The businessman understands that "the government needs to soon find a clear way on how to apply the law" and hopes to contribute to the debate regarding the betting taxation system.
"I see in many countries a tussle between federal and local regulations. This needs to be modeled more clearly. A central system is more scalable, easier to control, and a local system has many advantages for local communities. I think this is something where [Brazilian legislation] should be clearer," he argued.
Source: GMB
