The Global Betting Integrity Association (GBIA) has published a report disclosing a significant rise in questionable wagering signals during the initial three months of the year.
GBIA received a total of 56 suspicious betting alerts in the first quarter, representing a 64.7% increase from the final quarter of 2023.
In comparison to the same period last year, GBIA’s first-quarter alerts saw a 12.0% rise to 50. These alerts were reported from 21 nations across 5 continents, encompassing 6 athletic disciplines.
GBIA is committed to monitoring suspicious betting activity to detect potential sports corruption. GBIA’s membership comprises over 50 organizations and more than 125 betting brands, making it the largest integrity monitoring organization of its kind worldwide.
Khalid Ali, the chief executive of GBIA, believes the increase in alerts is another indication of the ongoing issue of match manipulation.
Ali stated, “The surge in alerts reported in the initial three months highlights the ongoing challenge of corruption faced by our members, the sporting world, and regulatory bodies. GBIA’s alerts are based on comprehensive global customer account data, which is exclusively available to GBIA and its members, and continues to expand, enhancing our leading global market coverage.
“This account data provides crucial evidence information to drive investigations and implement penalties.”
The IBIA is dedicated to collaborating closely with interested parties and providing this crucial foundation of evidence.
In the realm of football and Asia, the IBIA sounds the alarm about escalating figures.
The IBIA has declared in its inaugural quarterly report that the quantity of alerts in football and tennis has risen alarmingly. These two athletic pursuits collectively received 38 notifications, accounting for 67.9% of the overall total for the initial quarter.
The volume of alerts in football was the most substantial, reaching 24, reflecting a 50% surge from the preceding quarter’s 16. This figure also signifies a 60% increase from the 15 alerts issued during the same period the previous year.
While Europe held the highest number of alerts in 2023, Asia issued the most notifications in the first quarter of 2024, with 23. This represents 41.1% of the total for the quarter. Meanwhile, Europe only had 4 alerts, a 76.5% reduction from the 17 notifications issued on the continent in the first quarter of 2023.
North America and South America tied for second place in terms of the number of notifications, with both continents issuing 10 alerts in the first quarter. These two continents account for 17.9% of the total, respectively.
Turkey leads in terms of the number of alerts, with a total of 8 alerts, 5 of which originated from football, while tennis and basketball triggered 2 and 1 notifications, respectively. The IBIA only received one alert from Turkey throughout 2023.
The rise in alerts follows a decline in 2023.
The increase in the number of alerts in the first quarter follows a year-on-year decrease of 35% in the number of potential match-fixing alerts in 2023.
The IBIA received 184 alerts last year, a significant decrease from the revised 285 alerts in 2022.
During the initial three months of 2024, soccer and lawn tennis were the sports most impacted by suspicious activity. They triggered 63 and 54 warnings, respectively.
The IBIA’s findings for 2023 revealed that 74 matches were manipulated, resulting in 21 penalties.
Ontario has the potential to become a robust regulatory marketplace.
As part of its initial quarterly report, the IBIA emphasized Ontario’s potential as a strong regulatory market, drawing upon a study published earlier this year titled “IBIA Research, Sports Betting Product Availability: Economic and Integrity Analysis.”
Ontario launched its online sports betting licensing program in April 2022. The IBIA forecasts that the region could achieve a 92% channelisation rate in 2024 and a 97% land-based rate by 2028.
The IBIA predicts that Ontario’s total onshore earnings will surpass $506 million (404.8 million pounds/472 million euros), while offshore earnings will be limited to $42 million. Consequently, tax losses from 2024 to 2028 would be only $33 million.
Meanwhile, Canada (excluding Ontario) has an estimated onshore channelisation rate of just 11%, with offshore earnings of $355 million and onshore earnings of $45 million. As a result, from 2024 to 2028, Canada (excluding Ontario) could experience tax losses of up to $395 million if the current monopoly regulatory system remains unchanged.
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