Danish regulator ‘significantly strengthens’ integrity efforts with triple partnership

The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA), Spillemyndigheden, has entered into a partnership with a tripartite of high-profile betting integrity organisations.

Sportradar – via its Sportradar Integrity Services (SIS) division – the United Lotteries for Integrity in Sport (ULIS) and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), have all signed a formal cooperation agreement with the regulator.

The trio will alert the DGA if unusual betting partners on Danish sports events are detected, such as the potential of match-fixing. The three organisations monitor sports events to detect irregularities, such as ‘fluctuations in odds setting or effort in the bet’.

Anders Dorph, DGA Director, said: “We are very happy about the three cooperation agreements. It will significantly strengthen our efforts against match-fixing that we now receive the alerts directly.

“Combined with our own large amounts of data, it has the potential to make our work even more efficient. We will be able to react very quickly and help stop behaviour that threatens the integrity of the sport.”

The DGA assumed anti-match-fixing duties earlier this year in an expansion of its regulatory duties, leading to the formation of  the Danish National Platform,  taking on duties from Anti-Doping Denmark.

By bolstering  its efforts in this year, the authority was able to partner with ULIS in May of this year, making use of the organisation’s expertise and participating in events such as workshops, conferences and training sessions.

Meanwhile, the agreement further expands Sportrdar’s cooperation with international regulatory and public bodies. The Swiss-based company – active in the sports integrity space via its data services – has previously partnered with the likes of the Austrian Federal Police.

Following the publication of its latest annual report into sports integrity, Sportradar predicted that suspicious betting patterns on matches will likely continue into 2023, stating: “2023 will almost certainly see a continuation in the level of suspicious match numbers witnessed in 2022, and likely an overall increase.”

However, according to the IBIA’s most recent report, the number of suspicious bets in Q2 2023 fell year-on-year by 44% from 88 to 50.  This did mark an increase of 4% on the 48 alerts generated in Q1 2023.