Football betting under the spotlight

Football betting still does not have a clean bill of health, say Stats Perform Integrity and Starlizard Integrity Services in their Suspicious Betting Trends in Global Football report, which was issued yesterday.

The report has the objective of providing the industry with an overview of current trends in suspicious football betting. It is based upon a review of more than 80,000 matches played in 2019, 30 per cent more than in 2018. The percentages of matches identified as having suspicious betting patterns dropped from 0.61 per cent to 0.56 per cent.

The incidence of suspicious betting in women’s matches was “very low.” But the report warns: “The heightened media profile of women’s football has contributed to increasing amounts staked on women’s matches in betting markets.”

The percentage of suspicious matches involving national teams rose to 1.53 per cent from 1.01 per cent. One team played four suspicious matches, but the incidence of matches involving clubs from different countries fell.

Jake Marsh, head of Integrity at Stats Perform, said: “This is the third year we have published this report and the depth of analysis has increased once again.

“A concerted effort has been made to analyse the largest tranche of data possible to help raise awareness of specific areas and to get under the skin of suspicious betting patterns. Match fixing is a sensitive and complex issue and this report is intended to contribute to the overall understanding of what is arguably the greatest threat to the heart of football’s integrity.”