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Increase in alerts attributed to widening of the monitoring network as a result of membership growth

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), the leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry, has published its annual suspicious betting alerts. The increase in alerts for 2022 was a result of significant growth of its membership and the coverage of its regulated betting market monitoring network. The number of successful sporting or criminal sanctions last year confirms the value of collaborating through IBIA’s network in the fight against match-fixing.

The 268 cases reported represents a 14% increase on the previous year, albeit the figure is reasonably consistent with the 230 average annual alerts during 2019-21. There were 50 alerts in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022, adding to revised figures of 48 alerts (Q1), 80 (Q2) and 90 (Q3). The 2022 alerts spanned 14 sports and 61 countries, with tennis and football continuing to dominate. Europe also continued to provide the highest number of alerts with nearly 50% of the annual total.

During 2022, successful sporting or criminal sanctions were announced against 15 teams, officials or players where IBIA had reported suspicious activity on their matches. In several of the cases, data from IBIA and its members helped contribute to significant sanctions, such as life bans, being issued. This collective action attests to the powerful impact of IBIA’s data and cross-sector partnership working.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “The protective shield provided by IBIA is a vital tool in identifying and sanctioning attempted corruption on regulated betting markets. That has been underlined by welcome successful prosecutions during 2022 based on IBIA data, and we expect further corroboration of the association’s important positive impact and collaborative approach to be evident throughout 2023.”

IBIA’s network involves over 45 companies and 125 sports betting brands, including many of the leading regulated betting operators in the world, making IBIA the largest organisation of its nature. Whilst mitigating integrity activity continues across all of our members’ markets, North America has understandably been the focus of much attention: IBIA is the largest integrity monitor in Ontario, with a number of new members set to be announced across U.S. states over the coming weeks and months.

Khalid Ali adds: “The addition of 16 new members in 2022 has undoubtedly strengthened our monitoring and alert network and our ambition is to see all responsible regulated sports betting operators collaborating through IBIA. Proactive and collaborative action by our sector is an essential component in the fight against match-fixing, and to enhancing the overall reputation of the sector in general.”

Over the period 2018-22, IBIA reported 1,224 alerts across 21 sports and 102 countries. This involved 559 alerts in tennis and 295 in football during that five-year period and which accounted for 70% of all cases. The generation of these alerts involved important customer account transactional data which is only available via IBIA and its members, and which is often the initiator of investigative action by sport bodies, regulators and law enforcement, and is the cornerstone of subsequent sanctions.

Other key data for 2022:

102 – Total tennis alerts, an increase of 27% on the 80 reported in 2021
67 – Football alerts, a similar figure to the 66 reported in 2021
22 – Alerts on sporting events in North America
17 – Alerts on horseracing, with 14 in the U.S.
10 – Alerts on football matches in India

In 2022, the BlackByte ransomware group published a 292MB file containing sensitive information from the San Francisco 49ers. Like teams, venues and vendors, bookmakers are also in danger as they handle a large volume of personal data in the run-up to major events, during the events themselves and in the aftermath.

With the Big Game coming up soon in the US, Sumsub, an all-in-one verification platform that secures the entire customer journey with customizable KYC, KYB, transaction monitoring and AML solutions, has outlined what to expect and how to avoid threats associated with major events.

Expected traffic increases

Last year’s Big Game registered more than 101 million viewers according to the Nielsen consultancy. American fans avidly continue to bet on major sporting events as more and more states legalize gambling following the removal of a federal ban. By the end of 2022, the online betting industry registered a growth of two billion dollars, driven by sports pools.

Based on its experience with traffic spikes at major sporting events, Sumsub expects to see a traffic increase of more than 83% at sportsbooks around the last game of the American football season.

“Though major sporting events attract much-desired traffic to betting platforms, cybercriminals and scammers increase in number as well, so bookmakers need to take extra care. Manual verification is not optimal because, with the increased user traffic, onboarding time grows accordingly, so the best choice would be to find a trusted all-in-one verification provider offering an advanced automated solution for KYC, AML and anti-fraud,” said Andrew Sever, co-founder and CEO of Sumsub.

As user traffic increases and verification takes longer, it can be tempting for betting platforms to cut some expenses. This is especially true for bookmakers used to performing manual verification, which can take more than 24 hours under normal circumstances and much longer during big events. Bookmakers know that if verification takes too long, users will go to the competition. As a result, they may be willing to sacrifice verification accuracy for speed.

However, this type of compromise inevitably leads to regulatory sanctions. For example, Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes, was fined £17 million ($20.6 million)—the largest ever fine in the UK—for failing to enforce player security and anti-money laundering measures.

Surge in fraud

Fraud is increasing in the gaming sector. In Q1 2022, fraud increased 50.1% compared to Q1 2021. There was also an 85% increase in fake account registrations compared to Q4 2021. The upcoming Big Game is expected to attract even more fraudsters.

The list of fraud schemes that bookmakers experience is extensive:

• arbitrage betting

• multiple accounts

• identity theft

• account takeover

• money laundering

• affiliate fraud

Cybersecurity threats

“Big sporting events and hacking go hand in hand and the bigger the event, the more threats there are. Attackers can be individual hacker groups looking to make a quick buck or politically oriented groups wanting to steal sensitive information,” added Andrew Sever.

Cyberattacks range from hacking into match broadcasts and security cameras to stealing the personal data of athletes, organizers and spectators. More attention needs to be paid to collecting and storing user data securely, as well as increasing the overall resistance of betting platforms to hackers.

Best ways to avoid threats while enjoying high traffic?

During major sporting events, the challenge for bookmakers is to onboard users without reducing approval rates, all while remaining AML (anti-money laundering) compliant and maintaining security.

The solution is to create an automated verification flow that allows users to easily onboard and go through extra checks only where and when it really matters. Below is a list of checks bookmakers can employ at each stage of the customer journey. There are also some suggestions on how to make this flow even more agile:

Request a minimum number of checks at the time of registration. When a user registers for the first time, platforms may limit verification procedures to collecting names and checking phone numbers or email. This way, the user becomes familiar with the service and is more motivated to go through the full verification procedure when he really wants to place a bet.

Deploy simplified checks when appropriate. For low-risk users, bookmakers can introduce a simplified check using a single document, as long as it contains identity and address information. This allows users to avoid uploading additional documents to verify their address, thus increasing approval rates.

Add additional checks when users make their first deposit. This could include bank card verification and facial biometric check to ensure that the true cardholder is making a deposit.

Introduce facial recognition to prevent fraud. Doing this at the onboarding stage combats multi-accounting. Adding biometric verification when users log in or recover their account ensures that fraudsters can’t hack it. And it’s often even more important to use it at the stage of withdrawal of funds, which is where more fraud tends to occur.

“Adding these checks to the flow reduces verification time and still ensures security. For example, Kaizen Gaming moved from manual verification to Sumsub’s automated solution, reduced their average onboarding time to 1 minute 39 seconds and increased its overall performance by 350%, all while eliminating fraud,” concluded Sever.

Discussion: networking event for gambling professionals in London

In partnership with Sardine, an  industry leading fraud prevention platform, Sumsub announced Gambling Pros Party, a private networking event for gambling professionals which will take place at Clays Canary Wharf, London on February 6, 2023 at 18:30 UK time. This event will be useful for experts, businesspeople and professionals working in the betting and gambling companies.

Participation is free of charge and for gambling professionals only. To save your seat, please register with your business email: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/520357091067/?discount=Sumsub