Sportradar recently released an annual report on match fixing and the integrity of sports across the globe. The results may surprise you.
In the United States, sports betting has become more prominent since states began legalizing it across the country. That has brought the integrity of sports into question. The U.S. is behind other countries in the legalization of sports betting, particularly Europe.
Sportradar monitored 850,000 matches in 70-plus sports across the globe in 2022 and found 1,212 suspicious games across 12 sports and 92 countries.
That seems significant on the surface. And it is if you consider that's a 34% increase from 2021, according to Sportradar.
But Sportradar notes that it also means 99.5% of the matches they monitored are free from match fixing and no sport exceeds 1% of matches with suspicious activity.
Sportradar has used artificial intelligence to help detect possible suspicious games. Of the 1,212 matches that were declared suspicious, 438 were detected by artificial intelligence.
As the data continues to improve, the sanctions have also become more frequent. Sportradar reported a 135% increase in 2022 from the previous year of various governing bodies implementing sanctions against suspected match fixing.
Soccer is, once again, the most popular sport for match fixing. Sportradar detected 775 suspicious matches during 2022.
Basketball was the sport that had the largest increase in suspicious matches in 2022. Sportradar detected 220 suspicious games, which is a 250% increase compared to 2021.
Europe, Asia and South America are the most common continents with suspicious games. North America and Oceania actually decreased in suspicious matches in 2022 compared to 2021.
Match fixing is an issue across the globe, but it's important to note that it has decreased in North America despite more common legalization of sports betting.
