At 36 minutes into the first half, Juventude striker Ênio was punished by judge Paulo Cesar Zanovelli for complaining about the marking of a foul near the Rio Grande do Sul team's penalty area. The card received by the player raised suspicions among several bookmakers, who informed IBIA of the increase in bets on cards compared to what was expected.
So far, six bookmakers have reported the fact to IBIA. In one of them, bets that Ênio would receive a card exceeded 10% of the total bets, when the normal rate is around 1% of the total.
Superbet was one of the companies that was suspected and reported the manipulation alert to IBIA. According to the entity, one of the reports received from a 'Bet' (as the operators are called) indicated that 99% of the bets for cards were for Ênio and only 1% for other players. A second operator reported that the card received by the Juventude hopeful represented 90% of the total bets in the match against Vitória.
"When a suspicion of fraud is identified, operators report this information directly to international organizations, such as IBIA, the main global voice on integrity for the online betting sector. If confirmed as suspicious, IBIA forwards the information to the competent Brazilian authorities for the appropriate explanations," explains the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR).
The CBF received match reports and distributed them to the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) and the Public Prosecutor's Office. The entity reported that cases like this are kept confidential by the Integrity Unit. Sportradar, a partner of the CBF in betting monitoring, declined to comment on the case, stating that ongoing investigations are kept confidential.
The Ministry of Finance issued a statement about the case.
“The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance has monitoring means, including in cooperation with international organizations to combat match-fixing, and forwards all suspected cases to the Ministry of Sports and the Federal Police, but in order not to hinder potential investigations, we do not comment on specific cases,” it stated.
Source: GMB
