A recent report from Sportradar Integrity Services has revealed a significant drop in match-fixing incidents across global sports for 2024, but with Asia remaining a focal point for match-fixing concerns.
The report, titled Integrity in Action 2024 Global Analysis & Trends, highlights a notable decline in suspicious match detection worldwide, offering a mixed picture for the Asian sports landscape.
In 2024, Sportradar monitored over 850,000 matches across 70 sports, identifying a total of 1,108 suspicious matches, a 17 percent decrease compared to the previous year.
Geographically, Europe registered the highest number of suspicious matches (439), followed by Asia (310) and South America (245).
While Europe, traditionally the most affected region, experienced a significant reduction of 229 matches Asia saw a different trend.
Sportradar revealed that Asia remains a focal point for match-fixing concerns, with a slight increase of eight cases compared to the previous year.
This rise contrasts with a global 17 percent decrease in overall suspicious match activity, underscoring Asia’s unique challenges in the fight against sports corruption.
Soccer (football) remains the most affected sport, accounting for 65 percent of all suspicious matches identified globally, with basketball the second most affected by match-fixing.
In Asia, these two sports continued to dominate the suspicious activity landscape, reflecting their widespread popularity as betting mediums in the continent.
In a significant case, Sportradar supported the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) in the Philippines, leading to lifetime bans for 47 players and team officials involved in match-fixing.
Throughout the year, Sportradar partnered with key stakeholders in Asia, including the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), to provide integrity support for high-profile events like the AFC Asian Cup 2023. Services ranged from real-time monitoring of betting markets to intelligence analysis, helping to safeguard the competition from manipulation.
As for basketball, as in 2023, Asia was the most targeted region as it accounted for 50 percent of all suspicious matches with a slight decrease in suspicious activity in Europe, which accounted for 34 percent of all suspicious matches in 2024.
Other disciplines like table tennis and eSports experienced notable reductions in suspicious activity.
However, the gender disparity in match-fixing continues, with a significantly higher number of suspicious matches identified in men’s events (1,057) compared to women’s events (51).
Despite the reduction in suspicious matches globally, Andreas Krannich, Executive Vice President of Integrity, Rights Protection & Regulatory Services at Sportradar, emphasized the need for continued vigilance.
“The reduction in suspicious matches gives us reason to be optimistic, but it also underscores the need for ongoing vigilance and innovation, as the number remains significant”, he stated in the report.
As match-fixing networks adapt and evolve, Asia’s continued prominence in global statistics highlights the need for region-specific strategies and stronger collaboration between sporting bodies, betting operators, and law enforcement agencies, the report adds.
The report info was processed by Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), which employs advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence to track betting patterns and identify irregularities.
