Covid-19 lockdowns, social distancing restrictions and lack of fans will not deter match-fixers from corrupting sports, says leading integrity firm Sportradar, but instead force them to think of more sophisticated means of influencing games. In fact, they will become more organised and even hide in plain sight by controlling whole teams – and their players – through sponsorship deals, said Tan You Chen, Sportradar’s senior manager, Integrity Partnerships Asia in Singapore. “Because of the negative economic impact, we are likely to see an increase in match-fixing,” said Tan. “Another trend we anticipate is the modus operandi of match-fixers. The one-to-one approach, meeting up with players, that was the practice in the past. Moving forward, match-fixers are changing the way they operate. They are more organised and this is something we’ve seen. “They are taking over or sponsoring whole teams. Instead of corrupting one or two players, they buy over the whole team and put in the funds as sponsors and put in some prerequisite to bring their own group of players. So, at one time they may have four to five players and this makes it much easier to make a fix.” Match-fixing in Asian football competitions down 34 per cent as AFC extends deal with integrity firm Sportradar Sportradar works with governing bodies such as the Asian Football Confederation and Hong Kong Football Association to combat corruption in sport. They also have ties with the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, Nascar, Fifa and Uefa, monitoring more than 400,000 events every year across 60 sports. The company keeps tabs on betting trends and alerts their partners whenever they detect an anomaly. It helped to catch three Laos players accused of manipulating the result of their 4-0 loss away to Hong Kong in October 2017 and the successful conviction of Joseph Lamptey, a Ghanaian referee who deliberately awarded South Africa a penalty against Senegal in a Fifa World Cup qualifier in 2016. They also helped nab five Nepalese players who were accused of match-fixing at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea. Tan said while betting levels had dropped significantly during the first few months of global Covid-19 lockdowns, financially crippled clubs are ripe for corrupting as live sport gradually returns around the world. He added that match-fixers would target lower-league teams for their takeover schemes because high-profile clubs are more likely to be subjected to close scrutiny. “This problem is likely to have worsened during Covid-19 economic conditions,” said Tan. “Many clubs are struggling financially, some on the verge of bankruptcy and are in desperate need of funds. “In the acquisition of clubs there may not be proper due diligence in the parties [who buy clubs] and the flow of funds. “Lower-league competitions do not have the same level of financial strength and the level of attention is not as high so they are very attractive for match-fixers,” said Tan, highlighting the Swedish seventh and eighth leagues as a recent example of corrupt approaches. Spot-fixing is also likely to be on the rise. Cricket is well known for its cases in which players are paid money to underperform or make a scripted plays during a certain phase of the match. Players are more comfortable with spot-fixing because it does not influence the result of the match and Tan said more sports are being affected. Match-fixing: ‘more than 10 suspicious basketball games’ in Asian league with Covid-19 crisis poised to cause rise in corrupt practices “This phenomenon of spot-fixing is something that we witnessed before Covid and a lot of players and officials think it is not wrong,” said Tan. “They feel they are still putting in their best efforts. “Actually, when it comes to match-fixing, any type of fixing, even certain elements of the games, it is wrong. In cricket it can be restricted to what happens in a few overs, football the number of yellow cards or corners. “In basketball it is very common. Points shaving makes sure a team doesn’t win past a certain margin. It is likely to happen more frequently because it’s an easier fix and easier buy-in for the players. Ultimately, it is still wrong.”