Match-fixing and betting corruption scandals were a constant menace to the gambling and sports industries in the United States last year, but Sportradar, a data distributor and integrity monitor, announced on Tuesday that policing efforts “continued progress toward containment in 2025.”
Integrity in Action 2025: Global Analysis & Trends, an annual report published by the Swiss-based company, found that in more than one million monitored events in 70 sports worldwide, just 1,116 suspicious matches were identified, representing a 1% decrease from 2024.
“With more than 99.5% of sporting events worldwide monitored free from suspicion, the findings highlight the continued effectiveness of coordinated integrity measures across the international sports ecosystem,” per the report.
“The relative stabilization of suspicious match numbers in 2025 is encouraging, yet it reinforces the importance of continued vigilance,” Andreas Krannich, executive vice president, Integrity Services at Sportradar said in a release. “Match-fixing remains an evolving threat, and sustained investment in technology, intelligence, education, and collaboration is essential to staying ahead of those seeking to corrupt sport.”
Sportradar_Integrity_In_Action_2025US cases higher-profile, lower frequency
Sportradar provides integrity monitoring for events such as the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Women’s EURO, FIFA World Cup, and the Olympic Winter Games. It has partnerships with MLB, the NBA and the NCAA, which all are in the midst of ongoing sports corruption scandals.
Former Miami Heat player Terry Rozier (above) in December pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sports corruption for allegedly conspiring with gamblers to manipulate prop bets on his performance, and 26 men were charged in January with allegedly attempting to shave points in NCAA men’s basketball games.
The report doesn’t differentiate by types of basketball and there are no baseball cases noted. Former Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are set to stand trial in May on federal charges that they altered outcomes of microbet pitch markets to benefit themselves and gamblers. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The report identified total and spread betting as the most targeted markets for corruption in basketball, which corresponded with the allegations in the NCAA basketball case. Much of the alleged point shaving activity in the NCAA indictments centered around over/under first-half point spreads.
Security and sports integrity expert Matthew Wein said that while any progress is a positive development, integrity monitors must remain vigilant.
“My initial reaction is that good news is always welcome. I will caution, though, that this is largely a cat-and-mouse game,” he told InGame. “The bad guys find an edge and then the good guys catch up. I assume that match-fixers and others will start to adopt new technology like AI to try and regain their edge.”
There are also, he added, many facets to combatting corruption.
“The other thing to consider is that this is just one vector,” Wein said. “I think you need to consider the whole ecosystem, including things like the sharing of insider information and the threats that athletes face online, and in the physical world from gamblers and others. The whole ecosystem needs to work together at a strategic level to keep making progress.”
Soccer remains a problem area
Key findings from the Sportradar report:
- Cases were identified in 12 sports in 94 countries, resulting in 125 sanctions (a 20% increase)
- Europe again accounted for the highest number of suspicious matches, but 66 fewer cases were flagged than in 2024
- There were 84 cases across all sports identified in North and Central America, the fewest of any region analyzed
- Manipulation in all sports in South America also declined, with 64 fewer suspicious matches detected
- Soccer accounted for 618 of the 1,116 suspicious matches detected, a 15% decrease
- Suspicious soccer matches in North and Central America increased 42%
- Basketball followed with 233 cases, a 24% increase
- Tennis: 78, an increase of 13%
- Table tennis: 65, an increase of 41%
- Cricket: 59, an increase of 269%
Sportadar uses its artificial intelligence-enhanced Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) to glean real-time analysis of “extensive betting datasets, uncovering irregular patterns often undetectable through traditional methods,” according to a company release. The amount of suspicious cases flagged using AI increased by 56% in 2025.
