Carsten Koerl, Sportradar's global chief executive, explains why the company is committed to protecting sports across the globe and the decision behind making its Universal Fraud Detection System free to all global leagues and federations.
Match-fixing and manipulation in sport remains a constant threat. With Covid-19 allowing match-fixers to intensify their operations and become more aggressive in their activities, and many individuals and organisations facing severe financial shortfalls due to the pandemic, the fight to safeguard sport has never been more important.
In the past 12 months, we have seen firsthand how criminals are targeting all levels of sport, including competitions that were previously known to be low risk. We are witnessing a new wave of more direct digital approaches to players and athletes, which must be addressed and acted upon now and without hesitation.
In 2020, 50 per cent of the total matches escalated as suspicious by Sportradar Integrity Services came from outside of our formal bet monitoring for partners. These suspicious matches covered ten different sports, with sports as varied as beach volleyball and ice hockey affected. In reality, the number of suspicious matches outside of our formal systematic monitoring is likely to be far higher as we were only triggered to look into a small subsection because of alerts from our huge intelligence network. These figures demonstrate the market need for a universal solution, as match-fixing remains a constant scourge, with new sports and competitions becoming targets for match-fixers across the world.
Integrity is fundamental to public confidence in sport, and wrongdoing of any kind, at any tier of competition impacts all levels of sport and its fans. As part of our ongoing mission to help protect the entire world and community of sport from match-fixing and corruption, we have made the unprecedented move to offer our market-leading bet monitoring service, Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), free of charge to any global sports federation or league that wants to deploy it.
Removing financial barriers
As an industry, it is imperative we continue to do everything within our power to ensure that match-fixing activity is identified and eradicated, which means evolving the way in which we monitor sports and athletes. For more than 15 years, Sportradar has pioneered the delivery of integrity services to sports leagues and federations around the world, and our determination to safeguard the future of sport is stronger than ever.
However, we also understand the financial hardship the sporting world is experiencing. The suspension of events last year and the continued absence of fans in stadiums has left a devastating impact, with budgets dramatically cut and revenue streams showing no signs of recovery.
A world without sport is simply inconceivable, but as we continue to witness major sporting events unfold in empty arenas, federations and leagues face an uncertain future with the daily reminder of financial concerns. While the fight against match-fixing continues, we firmly believe that reliable bet monitoring tools for sporting competitions should be universally available for all, irrespective of budgets.
UFDS is critical in detecting irregular betting patterns in markets across the globe. The service is underpinned by our sophisticated technology, which continues to generate better results year-on-year with the implementation of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as other forms of new technology. The scalability and reliability of UFDS was proven in 2020, with more than 600,000 matches monitored across at least 1,000 leagues and competitions in 26 different sports.
The full financial impact of Covid-19 has yet to materialise, while match-fixing risks are likely to increase further in the coming years as organised criminals find new ways of attempting to influence sporting results. Our passion to make all sport clean will never diminish. As a result, we take great pride in Sportradar being the leader in integrity and innovation within the sports industry, and our latest steps to stamp out global corruption proves this. We do not want matters of finance to prevent leagues and federations from effectively guarding against corruption in their sports.
Just as we pledged to safeguard and uphold the highest integrity standards 15 years ago, we are more committed than ever to preserving the future of sport. With UFDS now freely available to everyone, we are in a stronger position than ever to fight together in these difficult times.
About the author: Carsten Koerl is group chief executive of Sportradar. Koerl has strategically led all aspects of Sportradar’s business since founding the group in 2001, driving the growth of the company from a tech-focused start-up to a global technology leader in the sports industry.
https://ift.tt/3bg84qV
Sport
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Opinion | How to safeguard sport in these difficult times - SportsPro Media"
Post a Comment