Sportradar Integrity Services, a global supplier of sport integrity solutions and partner to over 100 sports federations and leagues, has detected more than 1,100 suspicious sports matches since the start of the global pandemic in April 2020, with 655 of those matches detected in the first nine months of 2021.

In the last 18 months, Sportradar has utilised it’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), to detect suspicious activity in 12 different sports across more than 70 countries worldwide. These insights are published as Sportradar officially begins delivering its UFDS service free of charge, effective today, to sports federations, sports leagues, and state authorities around the world, in its continued commitment to protecting the integrity of global sport and making the system accessible to all.

According to Sportradar’s UFDS figures, soccer is the sport at most risk of corruption with more than 500 suspicious matches detected in 2021 to date. Approximately 40% of the suspicious activities reported within domestic soccer competitions come from third-tier leagues and below, including youth level, as fixers increase their attention on lower-level matches.

Andreas Krannich, Managing Director, Integrity Services at Sportradar said: “As our analysis shows, match-fixing is evolving, and those behind it are diversifying their approach, both in the sports and competitions they target, and the way they make approaches to athletes, such as the rise in digital approaches. To help address this, Sportradar has made a significant investment to make it possible to offer the UFDS for free to global sports organisations and leagues. The reason for this is that we are committed to supporting the sustainability of global sports and using data and technology for good.”

The rising popularity of esports has made it a target for fixers and has led to a rapid increase in the number of suspicious matches reported. Over 70 suspicious matches have been detected by the UFDS since April last year across five different game titles, with more than 40 of those suspicious matches identified since January this year.

In addition to the suspicious soccer and esports matches detected this year, Sportradar’s UFDS has detected suspicious activity in Tennis: 37 matches; Basketball: 19; Table Tennis: 11; Ice Hockey: 9; Cricket: 6, while suspicious activity has also been identified in Volleyball, Handball, and Beach Volleyball.

On a global level, the UFDS has detected 382 suspicious matches in Europe so far this year, with Latin America recording 115 suspicious matches in the same period. That’s followed by the Asia Pacific region with 74, Africa with 43, 10 in the Middle East, and 9 in North America since the start of January 2021.