This is evidenced by the data of one of the world’s largest sports technology companies. Sportradar Integrity Services provides sports integrity solutions worldwide and is a partner to more than 100 sports federations and leagues.
Since the start of the pandemic last April, the company has opened more than 1,100 suspicious sports competitions around the world.
More than 650 of these cases were detected in the first nine months of this year.
Tom Meiss, Head of International Operations at Sportradar Integrity Services, told AFP that the company’s fraud detection systems monitor the rates of more than 630 bookmakers worldwide and test the monitoring systems of more than 130 global bookmakers.
In an interview, AFP Meiss acknowledged that the pandemic is not a reason to negotiate games, but the general situation in this area in the world is getting worse and the pandemic “gives extra fire”.
As an example, he cited lower football league games, where the potential for match-fixing has increased because small clubs are unable to pay their players and are looking for additional profit opportunities.
“The pandemic has exacerbated the problem,” Meiss said, recalling that third-league clubs are played by professional or semi-professional footballers, whose salaries are not normally high, but during the pandemic clubs are late for several months, so bettors use their financial resources. vulnerability.
Meiss, who previously worked in the bookmaker industry, pointed out that most of the results are talked about in football, tennis and basketball, because there are a lot of games in these sports. Gaming talks are especially active in Asia.
He also admitted that it is not only the players who attract the attention of game negotiators.
“Clubs are overwhelmed with despair and are starting to hear offers from strange sponsors, with game negotiators addressing them directly,” the specialist said, adding that Covid-19 has affected everyone financially.
The clubs are taking advantage of the new sponsors, while the game negotiators are using their newly acquired influence in the clubs to attract players with whom they have previously collaborated, Meiss explained the illegal scheme.
He cited the feeling of impunity in the system as one of the causes of the problem, as caught players are disqualified, but this usually applies to a particular country and they can continue their careers in another country.
Game organizers, on the other hand, are usually given a conditional sentence of a few years, which does not deter them from committing offenses.
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