IBIA: suspicious betting alerts up 17% YoY in Q3, 2022

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), the leading global integrity watchdog for the licensed betting industry, released its latest report earlier this week. The latest report covers the third quarter of 2022 and reveals that IBIA has seen a total of 76 suspicious alerts. The suspicious alerts were from eight different sports and came from 29 different countries. Consequently, the global integrity watchdog forwarded the flagged suspicious cases to the relevant authorities for further investigation.

Most, out of any sport, were the reports raised from tennis. According to IBIA, in Q3, 2022, there were a total of 33 tennis alerts recorded. Next in line was esports, with a total of 16 flagged alerts, followed by football with 13 flagged alerts. In Q3, 2022, IBIA indicated that 10 suspicious alerts were related to table tennis. Other sports such as badminton, snooker, basketball and horse racing have seen a single flagged alert each.

Comparing the number of suspicious alerts flagged in Q3, 2022 to Q2, 2022, a decrease of 15% is observed, considering that during the previous quarter, the total number of alerts was 89. However, a year-over-year comparison marks an increase. In Q3, 2021, there were 65 suspicious alerts, which means that this year, the flagged alerts increased by 17%.

The IBIA did acknowledge that the number of esports alerts significantly increased. For the first half of 2022, the Association has recorded only 5 such alerts. But that number increased more than three times in Q3, 2022 to 16, as noted by the integrity watchdog. The Association acknowledged that this is likely the result of "the recent growth in IBIA membership, as multiple operators with a strong esports focus have joined the association."

The highest number of suspicious alerts was raised in Europe, with a total of 37 such alerts. This result represents 49% of the total alerts reported, the IBIA said. On the other hand, the second-highest number of suspicious alerts, a total of 8, were reported within the Asia region.

Tennis having the highest number of suspicious alerts comes as no surprise. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), the organization tasked with the integrity of the sport, has had a busy summer. Uncovering breaches to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP), the ITIA issued provisional suspensions, as well as bans.

Only recently, in September, the ITIA banned Sebastián Rivera, a former Chilean player and coach. He was banned for life from the sport. At the time of the announcement, the Agency said that it uncovered 64 breaches. Before that, late in August, the ITIA banned Lorenzo Chiurazzi, an Italian chair umpire and line judge. Besides enforcing against him a seven-and-a-half-year ban, the Agency imposed a $50,000 fine with $33,500 suspended.

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