Sportradar Partners with Swedish Football Association to Fight Match-Fixing

Sportradar Integrity Services, the world’s biggest provider of sports integrity solutions, has signed an agreement with the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) to track and safeguard its domestic football competitions’ integrity.

Sportradar to Help Svff Monitor Its Competitions

During the 2021 season, Sportradar will use its market-leading bet tracking solution, the Fraud Detection System, to screen over 2,000 matches from the Swedish Ettan, Division 2, U21 Allsvenskan, U19 Allsvenskan, and club friendlies involving Swedish teams (FDS).

The SvFF has previously enlisted Sportradar’s Intelligence & Investigation Services’ help in connection with an ongoing investigation into a former Allsvenskan player. The organization has been known to ban players, including Dickson Etuhu who was suspended in 2020. The SvFF will be able to do so again under the terms of this agreement.

The SvFF integrity officer, Johan Claesson, commented that the association is taking all measures necessary to safeguard its games. Making this deal and partnering with Sportradar Integrity Services will give the association the necessary tools to monitor all its matches.

SvFF will also have the means to oversee betting markets with the help of Sportradar’s integrity specialists. Claesson expressed confidence that by integrating Sportradar’s Intelligence & Investigation Services integrity program, the association will gain additional insight into emerging integrity threats.   

Match-Fixing Is a Global Problem                                          

Having Sportradar Integrity Services operate in betting markets is very important for everybody involved in the industry who might stand to lose money because of match-fixing.             

During a workshop held two weeks ago, the Football Kenya Federation urged lawmakers to take action against match-fixing. Match-fixing was described as a “global threat” by the Federation, which called for establishing a legislative framework to combat the practice.

Kenyan lawmakers could soon take disciplinary action against people involved in match-fixing. Football Kenya Federation (FKF) CEO Barry Otieno urged lawmakers to take action against match-fixing during the integrity workshop held at the Utalii Hotel in Nairobi.

Match-fixing attempts have risen in small leagues during the coronavirus pandemic, with around 160 suspicious games in Asia in 2020, according to Sportradar. However, the number of games that have been fixed has declined globally.

Sportradar’s UFDS has identified 526 irregular sporting games in over 600,000 matches worldwide over the last year, including more than 1,000 tournaments, culminating in 102 penalties and nine offenders convicted.

Football, basketball, volleyball, and beach volleyball were among the sports mentioned, as were handball, tennis, table tennis, ice hockey, cricket, and esports.