IBIA reports 35% fall in suspicious betting alerts in 2023

The International Betting Integrity Association’s (IBIA) 2023 annual report showed a 35% decrease in suspicious betting alerts globally.

Last year’s figure stood at 184, a 101 slump from 2022’s number of 285 and significantly below the 2019-2022 average of 244.

Europe was the continent with the most reported alerts at 113, which accounted for 61% of the total figure last year.

By a distance, South America was second with 19, while Asia had 17, Africa 16 and North America came in last with 12.

Europe also had the most sports reported for suspicious betting activity (12), with those being football, tennis, snooker, greyhounds and boxing to name a few.

The amount of clubs, players and officials penalised for breaking sports betting rules increased in 2023 to 21 from 15 the previous year, which consisted of eight tennis players, seven tennis officials, four snooker players, one football club and one former table tennis player.

IBIA’s suspicious betting activity data also helped to prove 74 matches were corrupted last year, contributing to investigations and subsequent sanctions.

Khalid Ali, IBIA CEO, said the increased collaboration between the integrity body, regulators and sports’ governing bodies is led to a fall in red flags being raised.

Ali said: “The fall in last year’s global alert numbers is encouraging. It confirms that our world-leading monitoring and alert network is making a very important contribution to deterring criminals from seeking to defraud our members, and that increased collaboration between IBIA, sports and regulators is a winning combination.

“Despite this progress, we must remain vigilant and recognise that the greatest threat to sports integrity comes from unregulated operators, most notably in Asia.”

By country, Brazil racked up the highest number of suspicious betting alerts for football at 11. This was followed by four in the UK, Spain, Ivory Coast and Israel, while India, Tunisia, Romania and the Czech Republic had three. In other sports, the Czech Republic received the highest number of alerts for table tennis at 12.

Despite being the second most reported sport in 2023, there was a 49% decrease in tennis alerts year on year – from 106 to 54. Tennis saw the most amount of suspicious activity in Spain with seven alerts, closely followed by Italy with six and Romania with four.

This was the first year that tennis was below football, which Ali called “ very encouraging”.

He added: “The ongoing decrease in tennis alerts, along with notable reductions in table tennis and esports, is very encouraging.

“IBIA will continue to work closely with the International Tennis Integrity Agency and other important partners in the sports sector to exchange information on suspicious betting and to support the prosecution of wrongdoing.

“The progress made in tennis over a number of years now demonstrates that successfully identifying and sanctioning match-fixing sends a powerful message to athletes and officials about the risks of engaging in match-fixing.”

There were seven esports alerts reported but this was not broken down by country as the IBIA said it is “not always clear where an event has been hosted”.