Football and tennis accounted for 68% of cases
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) reported 56 reports of suspicious betting to relevant authorities in Q2024 1. The Q2024 65 total represents a 34% increase compared to 4 reports in Q2023 12 and an increase by 1% compared to the revised Q2023 50 total of 50 reports. All IBIA reports are identified using customer account data from IBIA members, which are more than 125 companies and XNUMX sports betting brands, making the IBIA the largest integrity monitor of its kind in the world.
The 56 incidents of suspicious betting in the first quarter involved six sports, in 1 countries and five continents. Other key data for Q21 1 are:
- Football saw the highest number of reports per sport with 24, representing a 50% increase from the 16 reported in Q4 2023 and a 60% increase from the 15 reported in Q1 2022.
- Turkey recorded the highest number of reports per country with 8 (five in football, two in tennis and one in basketball).
- 41% of all alerts in Q1 were identified on sporting events taking place in Asia, while North and South America were second with 18% each.
- Only 4 alerts were identified on sporting events in Europe, which represents a 76% decrease compared to 17 alerts in Q4 2023.
Khalid Ali, CEO of the IBIA, said: “The first quarter saw an increase in reports, highlighting the ongoing challenge our members, sports and regulators face due to corrupt activities, with football and Asia which dominate our Q1 report. IBIA reporting is supported by detailed global client account data, available only to IBIA and its members, which continues to grow, expanding our world-leading market coverage. Account data provides probative information that is critical to further investigations and imposing sanctions. IBIA is committed to continuing to work closely with stakeholders and providing this important evidentiary basis.”
The Q1 report includes a focus on the availability of sports betting in Canada and a comparison of the licensing approach in Ontario versus the monopoly approach elsewhere in the country. The IBIA recently released a sports betting product availability report that highlighted Ontario as one of the top regulated gambling jurisdictions, with onshore channeling expected to reach 92% in 2024 and expected to rise to 97% in 2028. For the rest of Canada, however, an onshore rate of approximately 11% in 2024 and 13% in 2028 is expected.
The IBIA currently represents more than 60% of licensed private sports betting operators in Ontario, and Glitnor was recently announced as the latest operator to join the association in that province. The IBIA is a non-profit body that has no conflicts with the provision of commercial services to other sectors and is run by operators for operators to protect regulated sports betting markets from match fixing. The IBIA global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool, identifying and reporting suspicious activity in regulated betting markets.
Through IBIA's global monitoring network it is possible to trace transactional activities linked to individual customer accounts. IBIA members have revenues of more than $300 billion per year, accounting for approximately 50% of the regulated land-based and online sports betting industry globally, and more than 50% for online alone.
The IBIA Annual Integrity Report for 2023 reported 184 reports over the year, which represents a decrease of 101 (or 35%) from the revised 2022 figure of 285 reports. IBIA reports contributed to the investigation and subsequent sanctions of 21 clubs, players and officials in 2023, an increase from 15 sanctions in 2022.
