SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Sportradar Integrity Services has been enlisted by the Austrian Football Federation (ÖFB) to monitor and safeguard the integrity of its domestic competitions under a six-year agreement.
The deal will see Sportradar monitor over 700 matches per season from the Austrian Regional Leagues, utilising its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) bet monitoring solution.
“We are delighted to be working alongside the ÖFB and offering our expertise to help protect its domestic football matches against integrity related threats,” said Andreas Krannich, Managing Director Sportradar Integrity Services.
“In recent years, Sportradar has witnessed growing integrity issues across global football at lower levels of competition. The conditions and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a heightened level of risk across global football and strong integrity measures are needed now more than ever.”
Launched in February, Sportradar’s UFDS offering is an ‘advanced and proven bet monitoring system’, having been independently assessed and verified by experts in sports betting and integrity.
The sports data and analytics company’s international team of integrity experts analyse irregular betting patterns, identified through ‘sophisticated mathematical models and machine learning algorithms’, and any suspicious matches are reported to partners in order to provide visibility into worldwide match-fixing.
Krannich continued: “As a global leader in sports integrity services, we make it our top priority to work alongside our partners and support an effective framework to help minimize integrity related issues.
“We commend the ÖFB for their commitment to upholding the integrity of football within its competitions, through this UFDS agreement, and we look forward to lending our assistance to their integrity programme over the years ahead.”
Sportradar detected over 500 suspicious matches across global sport last year, and has reported over 5,400 suspicious matches in the past 15 years.
The ÖFB joins a range of international sports organisations and legal entities to have utilised Sportradar Integrity Services’ monitoring capabilities, including the General Directorate National Police of Bulgaria, the Netherlands Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation (NOC*NSF) and the Swedish Football Association (SvFF).
Dr. Thomas Hollerer, ÖFB General Secretary, added: “We recognise that match-fixing and other integrity issues present a clear and present danger in today’s sporting landscape and the ÖFB takes its obligations to this matter very seriously.
“By working with Sportradar Integrity Services to monitor our competitions through its UFDS solution, we will have valuable oversight of global betting markets offered on our games.
“Sportradar has a proven track record in the field of sports integrity and the depth of its bet monitoring capabilities will help to support our overall integrity programme over the next six years.”
