IBIA Releases 2023 Integrity Report
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), a leading global authority on integrity in the licensed sports betting industry, has unveiled its 2023 sports betting integrity report.
The report reveals a decline in suspicious alerts globally and a surge in successful sanctions for sports betting violations. The total number of reported suspicious sports betting alerts in 2023 dropped to 184, marking a 35% decrease from the revised 2022 figure of 285 alerts. These global alerts for 2023 are notably below the average of 244 annual alerts recorded during the 2019–2022 period.
The report also underscores that IBIA’s data on suspicious betting activity played a crucial role in confirming corruption in 74 matches. It highlights an increase in the number of clubs, players, and officials successfully sanctioned for violating sports betting rules.
It’s important to note that IBIA’s capability to detect and deter suspicious betting activity has significantly improved in recent years, now accounting for over US$137 billion in global betting turnover annually. This makes IBIA the world’s leading operator-run integrity monitoring body.
These findings underscore the significance of the legal requirement for regulated sports betting operators to join an international sports integrity monitoring body, a requirement recently introduced in Brazil. The 2023 report indicates that Brazil had the third-highest number of suspicious betting alerts (11), trailing behind the UK and the Czech Republic.
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, commented, “The fall in last year’s global alert numbers is encouraging. It confirms that our world-leading monitoring and alert network are making a very important contribution to deterring criminals from seeking to defraud our members, and that increased collaboration between IBIA, sports, and regulators is a winning combination. Despite this progress, we must remain vigilant and recognize that the greatest threat to sports integrity comes from unregulated operators, most notably in Asia.”
IBIA utilizes suspicious betting activity data from its unique global monitoring network to assist sports, regulators, policymakers, and law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting criminals. In 2023, IBIA alerts contributed to the successful sanctioning of 21 clubs, players, and officials, an increase from the 15 sanctioned in 2022.
In terms of individual sports, football had the majority of alerts with 63, while tennis was the second most reported sport with 54 alerts, representing a 49% decrease from the 2022 total of 106. Khalid Ali emphasized the encouraging trend of decreasing tennis alerts and pledged continued collaboration with relevant sports agencies to combat match-fixing.
The association publishes quarterly reports covering integrity alerts reported through its monitoring and alert platform, accessible here. IBIA can be contacted at info@ibia.bet.
