Covid adds fuel to the match-fixing fire: expert

A record number of sports matches are likely to be fixed in 2021 after the Covid pandemic “added fuel to the fire”, an executive at one of the world’s leading sports technology companies has told AFP.

Sportradar Integrity Services, a global supplier of sport integrity solutions and partner to over 100 sports federations and leagues, says it has detected more than 1,100 suspicious sports matches across the world since the pandemic started in April 2020.

More than 650 of those were detected in the first nine months of 2021.

Tom Mace, director of global operations for the firm, has at his disposal a fraud detection system which monitors the odds of more than 630 global bookmakers and account monitoring capabilities of more than 130 global bookmakers.

“I understand Covid has not caused match-fixing to happen but the general trend is not getting better but getting worse for us,” he told AFP in an interview.

“The pandemic has added fuel to the fire and we are seeing certain areas increase overall.”

He said lower league football matches were increasingly vulnerable to match-fixing because the pandemic has left small clubs unable to pay their players who look for other ways to make money.

Source: https://www.macaubusiness.com/covid-adds-fuel-to-the-match-fixing-fire-expert/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_xko3vekh_BRncg4sfqOlXOPI3rvzWZ9Ne4wKIH3HqhQ-1635156517-0-gqNtZGzNApCjcnBszQe9