GLMS Reported Slight Increase in Alert Reports in 2020

The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) published its 2020 Annual Monitoring and Intelligence Report, providing the main highlights in terms of objectives, key facts and figures. As part of the report, GLMS released data related to the number of suspicious alerts for the year.

Alerts and Alert Reports

The integrity body dealing with detection and analysis of suspicious betting activities in sports competitions sent to its partners 162 suspicious betting alert reports in 2020, 3.2% higher than the year before. The GLMS reported 126 matches, some of these to more than one partner or organization, hence the higher number of total alerts reported.

As a rule of thumb, football dominated the board, generating 110 of the total alerts, 44 of which were sent to the world’s governing body FIFA, 38 to UEFA and the remaining suspicious alerts notified local gaming authorities and local and international law enforcement agencies.

There were 73 total alerts sent to other organizations, including the ESports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), Swiss Lottery and Betting Board (COMLOT) and the Tennis Integrity Unit (TUI), besides the 7 alerts sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Following requests from partners, the GLMS prepared 58 detailed integrity reports.

In total, the global sports integrity monitoring body saw 1113 alerts in the year, with 936 of them being generated before the start of the sporting event, 27 came out while the games were in-play and 150 after the match ended.

GLMS Methodology

The GLMS uses a color management system to categorize the urgency of a suspicious alert – the color assigned after a thorough consultation with its members and an investigation of the possible reasons that could have led to the irregularity in the betting patterns which triggered the GLMS alert system initially.

A green alert is being created in cases of team-related news, motivation, same owner/sponsor, farmer club, member info, minor odd changes, and wrong starting prices. 2020 saw the GLMS generate 715 green alerts.

The yellow color indicates the next ranked in severity category and comprises of cases of member info, betfair volume, unexplainable odds changes, structure of tournament, and rumors of match-fixing. There were 217 yellow alerts during the reported year.

The most severe alert category, red, is triggered by member info, suspicious odds changes, rumors of match-fixing from a named source, and betfair volume/patterns. The GLMS classified 86 alerts as red in 2020.

Geographical Spread

Location-wise, Europe dominated the alert generation system of the global monitoring body, generating 727 alerts in sports like basketball, ice hockey, tennis, volleyball, handball, esports, table tennis and badminton, besides football.

Second place was Asia, which generated 191 total alerts, with almost all of them in football and basketball, while South and North Americas came third and fourth with 90 and 64 alerts, respectively.