Sportradar launches social media integrity education for athletes

Already, Germany’s top flight of ice hockey – the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) – has become the first league to sign up as a client for the service.

The education programme consists of a series of webinars and workshops for sportspeople. These remind players of integrity risks that can arise when using social media, as well as best practice for social media use.

“The integrity and reputational risks which can arise when using social media are far-reaching,” Sportradar head of education and integrity services Andrew Whittingham explained. “Not only can failing to act with integrity online put individual users at risk of harm, it can also pose threats to the integrity of teams or clubs, leagues or competitions, or sport as a whole.

“We’re excited to be working closely with [the DEL] and we commend the robust approach they’re taking to social media integrity education.

“By combining sessions to educate players, referees and officials simultaneously they are ensuring all participants in ice hockey understand the individual and collective responsibilities they have to maintain the highest integrity standards.” 

Gernot Tripcke, chief executive of Deutsche Eishockey Liga, added he was delighted to have signed the partnership with Sportradar.

“The players of the clubs are all active on social media several times a day and naturally want to make their own accounts as professional as possible,” Tripcke explained.

“The workshops will definitely be helpful in proceeding with the greatest possible security in the social media area. Equally, it’s about anti-manipulation, which has always been extremely important to us as a league.”

In addition, Sportradar will deploy its Fraud Detection System (FDS) for the Slovak Football Association (SFZ).

Sportradar will use the FDS to monitor Slovakia’s lower-league matches and club friendlies, in order to detect, flag and assess unusual betting activity.

If required, the SFZ will also have access to Sportradar’s intelligence and investigation services – which assists with investigations around integrity concerns – as well as its education offering.

“The Slovak Football Association is committed to the anti-match-fixing fight, and by entering into partnership with Sportradar Integrity Services, we are demonstrating the importance we place on keeping our game clean,” SFZ integrity officer Jakub Čavoj said. “Their FDS bet monitoring solution provides vital oversight of the global betting market, enabling their integrity specialists to alert us to any irregularities. 

“We look forward to this cooperation and working together to protect the integrity of Slovakian football.”

Andreas Krannich, managing director of Sportradar Integrity Services, said the business’ expertise meant it was well-suited to protecting integrity in Slovakian domestic football.

“We are delighted to be working alongside the SFZ and offering our expertise to help safeguard their domestic football matches against integrity related threats,” Krannich said. “Drawing upon our 15 years of experience in the field of sporting integrity, and driven by our market leading FDS solution, we are committed to helping our sporting partners detect and prevent manipulation, and to identify and mitigate all forms of integrity risk.”