February 4 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has extended its deal with Sportradar Security Services to monitor the global betting market in relation to MLS matches for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
The MLS plays 340 games a season. The new agreement will cover more than 400 matches over the two seasons.
Sportradar has been working with the MLS for two years, but the new deal is a significant increase for the league in the battle to keep match fixers out the game. As well as deploying its Fraud Detection System (FDS) that will process betting patterns and movements on both the regulated and unregulated markets, it will also provide a series of integrity workshops.
The workshops will be for PRO match officials and will cover how the betting markets work, the different forms of match manipulation, how fixers recruit and what the sanctions and effects of match manipulation can be.
MLS Vice President Operations and Security Ray Whitworth said: “Sportradar Security Services has been a fantastic partner of ours for almost two years now and I am delighted that they will remain our partners for at least another two. At MLS, we are dedicated to delivering the best sports entertainment to millions of fans worldwide that follow our league. And in line with that, we cannot compromise when it comes to preserving the integrity of soccer in the US.”
Sportradar Managing Director Strategy and Integrity Andreas Krannich pointed out that as the MLS starts to grow internationally and the number of platforms offering MLS bets increases, that in turn attracts the attention of match fixers globally.
“It is unsurprising that more and more fans are being drawn to US soccer. Equally, it is not surprising that bettors around the world are placing more and more bets on US soccer as well. There is always a danger of match fixing when liquidity increases on the global betting market and there is only one way to effectively deal with that danger – that is to get ahead of it. And that is exactly what MLS has done,” said Krannich.
“This partnership extension includes detection: any suspicious behaviour will be flagged, evaluated and forwarded to MLS. It includes prevention: PRO match officials will attend a tailored workshop to increase their awareness of match-fixing. It includes deterrence: potential fixers have been put on notice that MLS has the best system and services in place.”
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