By Paul Nicholson
October 14 – Italy’s Lega Pro are the latest to renew their match-fixing monitoring and prevention partnership with Sportradar. The league has also taken their commitment to fight match-fixing a step further with a logo emphasising ‘Lega Pro-Integrity’ being carried on the league’s official match ball.
Lega Pro first signed Sportradar for the 2011-12 season following a series of scandals in Italian football. The new deal will extend the partnership to the end of the 2017-18 season.
The 2011 Italian football scandal (known as Operation: Last Bet, Calcio Scommesse (Football Bet) or Scommessopoli (Bet City)), came to light on 1 June 2011 when a number of football-related figures were arrested. The list included former Italian international Giuseppe Signori, as well as former Serie A players Mauro Bressan, Stefano Bettarini and Atalanta veteran striker Cristiano Doni. The group was accused of fixing games in Serie B, Lega Pro Prima Divisione and Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. 15 clubs and 19 players were sanctioned.
Following the scandal Lega Pro acted swiftly to bring in monitoring and education. Sportradar, who had been monitoring betting patterns within the leagues prior to their engagement with Lega Pro, saw the number of suspicious matches per season drop by more than 80%
The renewed agreement covers Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System (FDS) which monitors betting patterns during live matches and highlights suspicious betting activity, and its educational Fraud Protection Service (FPS).
Sportradar Managing Director Andreas Krannich said: “Since 2011, over 10,000 players, youth players, referees as well as off-pitch staff have been active participants in our joint ‘Integrity Tour’.”
Lega Pro runs the third tier of Italian football and was restructured this year with the two previous divisions of Lega Pro (Prima Divisione and Lega Pro Seconda Divisione) merged into the Lega Pro Divisione Unica – generally called Lega Pro. The new structure has 60 teams in three regional groups of 20. Four teams are promoted to Serie B while nine are relegated to Serie D.
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