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Coronavirus: sport experiencing match-fixing boom driven by Covid-19 cash crisis, say experts

  • Football, esports and basketball most badly effected by criminal behaviour surrounding betting
  • Sportradar Integrity Services detected 903 suspicious matches in 2021 – the highest number recorded in the company’s 17-year history

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Supporters cheer during the final esports match of the PGL Counter-Strike Major event in Stockholm.  Experts said esports was being targeted by match fixers. Photo: AFP

The Covid-19 pandemic has been an “El Dorado” for match fixers because of the negative impact the virus has had on the finances of individual sports, a leading sports technology company has told AFP.

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Sportradar Integrity Services, which works with more than 100 sports federations and leagues, detected 903 suspicious matches in 2021 – the highest number recorded in the company’s 17-year history.

“The cancer of match-fixing is spreading, and these numbers should serve as a warning and a wake-up call for global sport, at all levels,” Andreas Krannich, Sportradar’s managing director, said.

Andreas Krannich, managing director of technology firm Sportradar. Photo: Handout
Andreas Krannich, managing director of technology firm Sportradar. Photo: Handout

The increase in suspicious activity last year rose alongside record levels of global sports betting turnover which Sportradar estimates at more than €1.45 trillion (US$1.6 trillion).

Around €165 million was generated in match-fixing betting profit.

Football had the highest frequency of suspicious matches at a rate of one in every 201 fixtures. It was followed by esports, with one in every 384 fixtures, and basketball at one in 498.

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Krannich professed himself to be “a very optimistic person” but said these figures were “a threatening development”.

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