Suspicious betting decrease in football

The Global Football Report 2019 has revealed that suspicious betting patterns in the sport have decreased following a year-long data study which spanned 62,250 football matches played across 115 countries in 6 continents.

The report, which was was released by the working partnership of Stats Perform’s integrity unit, Starlizard Integrity Services and TXODDS, found out that matches identified as having ‘suspicious betting patterns’ decreased from 397 to 377 in the last year. The total number went down despite researchers expanding its search area by an estimated 14 per cent.

5.6 per cent of last year’s analysed matches were youth football competition. Following the reviews, it was revealed that despite a decrease from 62 to 58 between 2017 and 2018 regarding suspicious matches, youth matches still accounted for over 15 per cent of all identified suspicious matches.

Things look much better with women’s football. There were only six separate suspicious instances out of 2,328 women’s matches which were monitored last year. It means only 0.26 per cent of women’s matches were counted as ‘suspicious’.

“This report is intended to provide football and integrity stakeholders with meaningful insight into matches with suspicious betting markets on a global scale. We believe that by shining a light on suspicious activity in a non-accusatory public forum we can elevate understanding of the latest trends and areas of concern to integrity stakeholders,” explained Jake Marsh, Head of Integrity at Stats Perform.