Estonian integrity body strikes anti-fraud monitoring deal with Sportradar

| By Marese O'Hagan
The Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports (ESTCIS) has announced a deal with Sportradar Integrity Services to monitor domestic sports competitions from October 2021.

As per the agreement, Sportradar will monitor betting and reporting for football, basketball, handball and volleyball competitions in Estonia using its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS).

The sports competitions total at almost 1,000 fixtures per year.

Sportradar’s UFDS involves a team of experts who analyse suspicious betting patterns, with any dubious behaviour reported to the necessary partners.

The company announced earlier this year that it would offer the UFDS for free to leagues and sports federation.

“We are fully committed to putting in place the measures necessary to ensure that the integrity of sport throughout Estonia is maintained, and this agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services is integral to doing so,” said Henn Vallimäe, executive director at ESTCIS.
“Global bet monitoring across a broad range of sporting competitions will give us a valuable insight into the betting activity surrounding our domestic competitions, with Sportradar’s integrity specialists able to alert us to any abnormalities.”

Last year Sportradar reported that 500 suspicious matches were detected by the UFDS globally, and over 5,500 were detected and reported in the last 15 years.

Sportradar has had a partnership with the Estonian Football Association for the last 10 years, and has supported multiple fraud and match-fixing investigations.

“Having worked alongside the Estonian FA for the last decade, we are delighted to sign this agreement with another key Estonian partner in the ESTCIS,” added Andreas Krannich, managing director of Sportradar Integrity Services.

“The services provided by the UFDS will help aid the ESTCIS in their efforts to understand the threat of match-fixing in the country and to prevent manipulation of their sporting competitions now and in the future, and we look forward to supporting their integrity programme.”

Ice hockey, badminton, beach soccer, futsal and cricket will be addressed by the agreement from summer 2022.

Last week Sportradar announced a six-year partnership with the Austrian Football Association, where it will again offer its UFDS services.