IBIA reports 41% yearly decrease in suspicious betting alerts in Q3

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has released its sports integrity report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, revealing a decline in suspicious betting activity from the same quarter last year. 

The association reported 50 suspicious betting alerts to the relevant authorities in Q3, the same amount reported in Q2, bringing the Q1-3 2023 period to 148 alerts. Football and tennis accounted for 56% of all third-quarter alerts.  

The 50 suspicious betting alerts were identified across IBIA members’ global businesses, which number over 125 sports betting brands and over $137 billion in betting turnover per annum, “making it the largest integrity monitor of its type in the world.”

The 50 incidents of suspicious betting in Q3 concerned eight sports, across 21 countries and five continents, IBIA noted. 

Key data of the Q3 2023 report

• The 50 alerts reported in Q3 2023 are a decrease of 41% when compared to the Q3 total for 2022, which saw 85 alerts.
• Tennis had the highest number of alerts with 15 in Q3 2023, representing a 7% increase on the 14 alerts reported in Q2 and a 55% decrease on the 33 reported in Q3 2022.
• Football (soccer) accounted for 13 alerts, a 32% decrease from the 19 cases reported in Q2.
• Europe, with 30 alerts, made up 60% of the total reported, followed by South America with 7 alerts (14%)
   

Khalid Ali, IBIA CEO, said: “The quarter saw a continued reduction in alerts with a more than 30% decrease in the first three-quarters relative to 2022, with tennis a major contributory factor. During the quarter, IBIA and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) co-hosted a best practice integrity seminar in New York with many of the premier sports and betting operators in the US."

"That cross-sector cooperative approach underlines the strength of our relationship with tennis, as acknowledged by the ITIA, and our shared commitment to working in partnership to combat corruption in that sport.” 

The Q3 integrity report includes a breakdown of alerts reported on sporting events taking place in North America between 2018-2022. It also contains an analysis of tennis alerts, which average 13 tennis cases per quarter in 2023 compared to an average of 26 per quarter in 2022 and 20 per quarter in 2021.

The latest US sports betting gross win calculations, provided by global gambling market intelligence company H2 Gambling Capital, show that the licensed onshore market is expected to reach $11.7 billion in gross win in 2023, rising to $18.9 billion by 2026.

Of the 50 alerts reported in Q2 2023, three related to women-only events, 43 to men-only events with three mixed genders, and one an animal sporting event (greyhound racing).  IBIA recently released a study that analyzes the size and characteristics of the women's sports betting market and examines the potential vulnerability of women's sports to match-fixing.