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