IBIA posts 40 suspicious betting alerts in Q1 2023

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) continues to keep a vigilant watch over its members' betting activity, with the association relying on the feedback provided by its members.

IBIA has been able to add dozens of new members, with the organization focusing heavily on the North American market, although the legalization of sports betting in Brazil has expanded the regulated gambling market by 44.4% between 2021 and 2022, or by some $940m, as per data provided by H2 Gambling Capital, a consultancy.

Regardless, IBIA has been able to flag 40 incidents of suspicious betting activity provided by its members, which account for more than 50% of the commercial betting activity across the world. Based on IBIA data, the incidents took place across 22 countries and five continents.

The association explained that the highest number of alerts remained in soccer, with 38% of all alerts. Meanwhile, Q1 2023 saw 12 tennis alerts submitted by members, which was still a 50% drop from the average quarterly number of tennis reports throughout 2022, the organization said in a press release.

In terms of single countries, Spain turned out to be the one with the most alerts per single country, or a total of eight such instances. The eight signals reported in Spanish sporting events in Q1 2023 were as much as the total such signals for the entire 2022 reported by IBIA members, meaning that there has been a significant uptick in the numbers.

Commenting on these numbers and results, IBIA CEO Khalid Ali said that the organization’s members continue to keep watch over the sector and use customer-account data that is only available to the association’s members. Ali spoke highly of the pooled efforts of the companies and what it meant for their collective capability to stop match-fixing and flag it immediately after the fact, adding:

"By harnessing those collective resources, we are able to deploy a protective shield around IBIA operators, resulting in fewer attempts to corrupt our members compared to non-members."

Ali further added that a well-regulated market is crucial to ensuring that sports betting match-fixing is tackled. There have been numerous instances of such offenses over the past years, and even in the United States, which is a fairly tightly regulated, albeit new market.

A recent spate of scandals involving NFL, UFC and MLB players has accentuated the need for more preventative measures in the sector. IBIA is only getting started with the North American market with the association securing the recently launched Fanatics, operator of the namesake sportsbook, and others.

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