"Sport can not bend to fraud attempts"

Panel discusses the manipulation of results in sports as a recurring theme in the question of sports betting, as it involves not only the passion for the sport itself but also - and especially in gaming industry - the issue of sports betting security.

"The vicious circle creates insecurity and protecting the industry against this is to value the activity and ensure the survival of one of the branches of the betting industry. SportRadar has studied this theme a lot and we have tried to show regulators the importance of avoiding fraud,” says Ricardo Magri, executive of the company.

According to Magri, "the sport can not lead to promises of financial advantages to allow the manipulation of results, as this is harmful to the sport itself and to the activity of sports betting.” In his assessment, this kind of practices is more common in smaller leagues and seeks to target players with some vulnerability to allow themselves to receive such benefits to solve particular problems.

To fight this problem, the company sought to provide a healthy environment of control for local federations to guard against this type of fraudulent action. "We monitor what happens in the market and we generate alarms of deviations from the results and betting patterns that these results are being made. We have reached perfection to offer the authorities (federations and even police) detailed reports on the profile of the monitoring carried out to promote the necessary sanctions, "he said.

Since 2008/2009, according to Magri, more than 3 thousand frauds happened in several sports and were detected by the company, causing disciplinary measures against players and referees, including the arrest of 24 people. In South America, and especially in Brazil, few cases have been reported. The company already has agreements with Conmebol, the Paulista Football Federation and the Brazilian Football Confederation.

Representing the Paulista Football Federation, its vice president, Fernando Solleira, said that a group was formed within the entity to analyze and curb fraud, "since we hold more than four thousand games a year and we can not allow the image of Sao Paulo football is tarnished."

Luiz Henrique Martins Ribeiro, president of the Association of Professional Clubs of Santa Catarina, said that in his state the regional championship "is fully monitored and this is important for the safety of sports and serious investments by the bookmakers, sponsors of the teams and, of course, the confidence of the fans that transparency is our main brand as clubs, associations and federations."

Source: Exclusive GMB