In the absolute vast majority of cases – 99.9% at the very least – you can bet on sport safe in the knowledge that all of the players, officials, coaching staff etc want to win.
But, sadly, there’s the odd rotten apple even in professional sport that will resort to trying to fix games for their own personal gain.
Corruption has been rife in some footballing countries for decades, for example, while even a sport as wholesome as snooker has been hit with its own match fixing scandal in recent years.
But there’s good news on that front. According to Sportradar, whose annual integrity report documents incidences of suspected match fixing and suspicious betting patterns around the globe, the number of cases of corruption in sport fell in 2024.
And the decline is enough to leave the sports integrity specialist feeling ‘optimistic’ that the number of bad eggs in professional sport is on the wane.
Good News, Bad News
Basketball has overtaken tennis as the most fixed sport behind football
Two of the sports worst hit by corruption in recent years are football and tennis, but both have seen an improvement in the number of games that are being tarnished.
Some 721 cases of suspicious activity and betting patterns were recorded in football in 2024, which was down from the 881 instances in the year prior. A handful of the most likely offenders for match fixing, such as the regional leagues in Brazil, saw some of the biggest falls, with a decrease of a considerable 48% year-on-year.
But there’s still some concern that around 0.43% – a tiny percentage in practice, but considerable given the number of games played per week – of football matches are still blighted by some kind of integrity breach.
Sportradar uses AI monitoring tools to spot suspicious betting patterns, which in 2024 identified one fix in an unnamed game. More than 80% of the total amount bet on the contest came in for the 0-4 correct score, while irregular patterns were spotted in play backing the away side to win by four or more goals.
The fall in match fixing in tennis – just 69 cases were recorded across the recognised tours last year, means that basketball is now, as per the Sportradar data, the second-most corrupt sport.
The likes of table tennis and volleyball – niche sports for which betting odds are routinely available – are ranked at four and six respectively.
A worrying finding of the annual integrity report is that corruption in esports gaming is still an issue.
Betting odds are becoming more readily available for the likes of CS:GO, Dota 2 and even Fortnite, which is leaving players – some of whom won’t be paid huge amounts – vulnerable to corruption. A handful have been sanctioned already, with some even facing jail time for their part in match fixing.
With betting firms offering prop lines and deeper markets, incidences of spot fixing – where a player doesn’t fix a game, but instead a single map or moment – are also on the rise.
Reasons to Be Optimistic
Despite a drop of 34% in 2024, Europe still has more suspicious fixtures than any other continent
Somewhat surprisingly, Europe is the worst hit of the continents when it comes to match fixing in sport.
Although such instances were down by a whopping 34% in 2024, Europe still saw 439 of the total 1,108 suspicious matches identified across 70 different sports, with Asia (310) and South America (245) next on the list.
While Europe and Africa both recorded few instances of match fixing last year than in 2023, the numbers were largely the same in Asia and North America while South America actually saw a rise in sporting corruption.
Europe and South America had the worst ratio of fixed football games, although the number of recorded incidents in Europe fell from 397 to 250, which suggests that anti-corruption efforts are starting to bear fruit.
Around 82% of suspicious betting patterns were documented in-play, with the first 15 minutes of football games amongst the most vulnerable to fraud. The most common betting markets targeted by fixers in football include winning margin, total goals (typically the ‘overs’ side) and the combination of those two outcomes in a single wager.
However, the results are more positive than they have been in a number of years, according to Sportradar chief Andreas Krannich.
“While the notable reduction in suspicious matches in 2024 gives us reason to be optimistic, it also signals the need for continued vigilance and innovation, given that the number remains significant,” he said.
“We remain committed to refining our methods and capabilities and collaborating across the sports and betting industries to support foundational fair play and safeguard the integrity of sports worldwide.”