Sportradar Reports 1% Drop in Suspicious Matches for 2025

The number of suspicious sports matches identified by Sportradar dropped by 1% in 2025, with 99.5% of sporting events worldwide being free from suspicion.

Sportradar’s UK presence

Sportradar supplies data to several prominent operators in the UK, including William Hill and  Betfred. In October, Sportradar’s planned acquisition of fellow betting data supplier IMG Arena was cleared by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, following a regulatory review.

In an unusual deal, Sportradar will be paid $225 million (£164.8 million) to take IMG Arena from entertainment conglomerate Endeavor. The deal completed in November.

A shifting dynamic

Sportradar monitored more than 1,000,000 events across 70 sports in 2025, with 1,116 suspicious matches being identified; this total was down 1% from 2024. The suspicious activity was detected across 12 sports in 94 countries, in comparison with 95 countries in 2024. The overall match-fixing rate was one in 709 matches, compared to one in 608 the previous year.

Sportradar said in its report:

“While this reduction signals continued progress, it also highlights a shifting dynamic, as match-fixers adapt their operations and explore new opportunities beyond traditional areas of activity.”

Europe was the region that scored highest for suspicious matches, although the total of 385 was down by 66 from 2024. Europe’s 385 total accounted for 34% of the suspicious matches across the globe.

There were also 64 fewer suspicious matches detected in South America (183). However, Asia (351), Africa (113) and North and Central America (84) returned modest increases.

Football (soccer) continued to be the sport that was impacted the most by potential match fixing in 2025, with 618 suspicious matches being detected. The sport that was closest to this was basketball, which reported 233 cases, while there were notable increases for tennis (78), table tennis (65) and cricket (59). Ice hockey was the only sport within the study that did not report a single suspicious match.

A vast majority of the suspicious matches total was attributed to men’s sport. This accounted for 1,081 suspicious matches, in comparison with 35 in women’s sport; this total was down from 51 in 2024. Sportradar stressed that while this is encouraging, it is important to sustain proactive integrity measures.

Important to note

While a total of 1,116 matches were identified as suspicious, this does not necessarily mean that number of matches were being fixed. Increases and decreases in this number may not always be defined as a positive or negative sign, as more suspicious alerts could point to greater levels of detection, and vice versa.

Andreas Krannich, Executive Vice President, Integrity Services at Sportradar, said:

“The relative stabilisation of suspicious match numbers in 2025 is encouraging, yet it reinforces the importance of continued vigilance. Match-fixing remains an evolving threat, and sustained investment in technology, intelligence, education, and collaboration is essential to staying ahead of those seeking to corrupt sport.”

Sportradar can flag suspicious betting behaviour via its AI-powered Universal Fraud Detection System. The number of suspicious matches flagged through AI analysis increased 56% year-on-year, showing AI is playing an increasingly important role in identifying suspicious betting behaviour.

New Betfred deal

Last week, Sportradar extended its retail technology partnership with Betfred, covering the operator’s 1,300 retail outlets across the UK. Sportradar will upgrade Betfred’s retail platform technology, in the next stage of a partnership that has been in place for more than a decade.

Sportradar’s retail technology is designed to allow operators to manage data loads and scale in real-time as bets are placed. Under the terms of the agreement, Sportradar will oversee improvements to the platform. Its technical framework will allow Betfred to integrate Sportradar’s products.