The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) reported 270 cases of suspicious betting to the relevant authorities during 2020, with 68 of those cases reported in the final quarter (Q4). The 2020 total is a 48% increase in alerts compared to the 183 cases reported in 2019, with table tennis and eSports accounting for much of that. Tennis (98) and football (61) saw the largest number of alerts with 59% of the total, albeit a fall from 82% in 2019.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “2020 was a turbulent year for many sectors including the betting industry, which had to adjust its market offering due to the global sports lockdown. As a result, IBIA focused its integrity monitoring activity to take account of new sports tournaments and competitions that emerged.” He added: “The association is seeking to work with stakeholders to address any potential integrity issues that may be associated with these new events through a range of actions, including promoting a set of standards for the collation of sports data for betting. Whilst there was an increase in overall alerts from 2019 to 2020, it should be noted that the 2020 cases are consistent with the number of alerts reported in both 2017 and 2018.”

Other key data for 2020:

• 12 – criminal or sporting sanctions on players/teams based on IBIA data
• 15 – sports on which alerts where reported
• 25 – percentage increase in football alerts
• 43 – countries where alerts on sporting events were reported

During the four-year period 2017-2020, IBIA reported 986 alerts across 17 sports and 95 countries, with our unique customer account data leading to numerous sanctions being imposed.

The International Betting Integrity Association is the leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry. It is run by operators for operators, protecting its members from corruption through collective action. Its monitoring and alert platform is a highly effective anti-corruption tool that detects and reports suspicious activity on its members’ betting markets. The association has longstanding information sharing partnerships with leading sports and gambling regulators to utilise its data and prosecute corruption. It represents the sector at high-level policy discussion forums such as the IOC, UN, Council of Europe and European Commission.