IBIA says football and tennis most attractive for match-fixing

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has identified a total of 63 suspicious betting cases across Q1 of 2025. . 

In total, the figure represents a 3% drop on preceding cases of Q4 2024, but a 11% increase on year-on-year comparatives of  Q1 2024 (57 alerts). 

Q1 incidents spanned across six sports taking place in 23 countries and on five continents. The IBIA has already reported its findings to the relevant authorities. 

Further  interesting findings in the report highlight that football and tennis accounted for 40 alerts (64%) out of the total quarterly count, which represented an increase of 14% from the 35 such in Q4 2024. 

Alerts raised in Europe and North America made up a total of 51% (32) incidents from all reported in Q1, which on a positive note is a decline of 29% from the 45 alerts in the quarter prior. 

Additionally, table tennis was highlighted as a target of  potential sports betting bad actors, with the IBIA reporting 9 suspicious instances in Q1. This was still 53% less than the 21 reported in Q4 2024. 

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “The first quarter of 2025 was relatively consistent with the previous quarter and the comparable period last year. Football and tennis remain the most reported sports, albeit their combined Q1 2025 number was down 14% on Q4 2024. 

“This quarter-on-quarter reduction was primarily due to a fall in tennis alerts, which have shown a welcome reduction in recent years. 

“The Q4 2024 increase in table tennis alerts has not continued into Q1 2025 and has fallen back to previous levels. IBIA has taken increased precautions regarding this sport and agreed a number of new integrity partnerships and protocols in Q1 with the aim of detecting and sanctioning corrupt betting activity.”

IBIA is responsible for monitoring more than $300bn in annual betting turnover generated by its more than 80 members, operating a combined total of over 140 sports betting brands in the world.