March 19 – Starlizard Integrity Services, the betting-related match-fixing monitoring specialists, are reporting a 16% increase in suspicious matches in 2023 against 2022.
Starlizard analysed a total of 65,441 football matches in the 2023 calendar year across 835 competitions in 128 different countries. A total of 167 matches showed signs of potential manipulation – 0.26% of the total number of matches analysed.
“Match-fixing remains an ever-present danger to football and is a plague on the game – damaging it as a spectacle and compromising the essential elements of skill, chance and fair play. It tarnishes the reputation of the game and all associated with it – including sponsoring brands – and ruins the trust and enjoyment of the fans. It destroys careers and costs people their liberty,” said Affy Sheikh, head of Starlizard Integrity Services.
Analysis published in the Starlizard Football Integrity Report 2023 show that 69 of the 167 games (41.3% of all suspicious matches identified in 2023) were played in the UEFA (European) region, though this is caveated by the far higher number of matches played in the UEFA region (37,951) compared with any other confederation region.
These matches represent only 0.18% of the total UEFA region matches analysed – below the overall global percentage of 0.26%. The AFC region saw the highest percentage of suspicious matches at 0.47%, although 0.52% of all international matches analysed have also been assessed as suspicious.
83 matches (49.7% of all suspicious matches identified in 2023) were played in domestic leagues below the top tier. However, top-level leagues were not immune from match-fixing, with nearly a quarter of all suspicious matches identified being in this category, said Starlizard.
“The manipulation of matches is not a new phenomenon in football, yet the perpetrators are enterprising and have become increasingly sophisticated in their methods and widespread in their activities. These…
Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/03/19/starlizard-report-finds-betting-related-match-fixing-football-increased-16-2023/
Author : Paul Nicholson
Publish date : 2024-03-19 09:00:46
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