130 suspicious betting cases reported by integrity body

Tennis dominated 2016 with 103 cases being reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit, followed by football with 16 cases reported to the relevant governing body.

ESSA Chairman, Mike O’Kane, said: “The figures show that the dangers from the misuse of insider information and match-fixing persist for betting operators. As the sector’s representative body on betting integrity issues, ESSA continues to meet with key stakeholders to discuss practical and proportionate actions. We hold positions on a number of major betting policy working groups and match-fixing programmes to do just that.”

He added: “As with previous years, we expect 2017 to entail challenges to the commercial activities of our sector. ESSA will continue to be an ardent and vocal supporter of responsible regulated operators and utilise our alert system to protect our growing list of members, consumers and sports from betting related corruption. We intend to progress a number of constructive actions in this area during 2017 and in particular work closer with sports governing bodies and rights holders on more collaborative relationships."

From a geographical perspective, Europe posted the highest number of alerts in 2016, with 71 cases relating to sporting events taking place in that continent. Tennis made up the majority of those cases with 45 of the 71 alerts. Tennis also accounted for 24 of the 25 alerts across all sporting events in Asia. For football, the cases predominantly occurred in European based matches with 15 of the 16 alerts recorded there. A more detailed breakdown of the statistics can be found in ESSA’s 2016 report here.