Sportradar Integrity Services – the esteemed provider of integrity solutions – has received another vote of confidence after it was announced that it has entered into a two-year partnership with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
Among the outcomes of this agreement will be the adoption of the of Sportradar’s trademark Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) by the WBSC during each of that sport governing body’s international competitions for the next two years.
The UFDS comes to the WBSC with a proven track record, having emerged in recent years as a favorite of data analysts in the world of betting and integrity.
The technology, with its attendant team of qualified experts, has the ability to compute a wide spectrum of betting patterns, remaining vigilant in its search for irregularities.
Suspicious games get reported – these irregularities held up to the opprobrium of a discerning world – and the odds that widespread match-fixing comes to light are increased.
In 17 years of operation, Sportradar Integrity Services have picked up on 6,900 suspicious games. In an indication that instances are on the rise, no fewer than 900 happened in 2021 alone.
At the WBSC, the hope is that this technology will increase transparency. As group President, Riccardo Fraccari, commented: “We’re looking forward to benefitting from Sportradar’s expertise in providing bet monitoring and intelligence solutions for appropriate detection and investigation of threats to sport integrity, maintaining baseball and softball’s game unpredictability and safeguarding the international game from manipulation.”
In raising the integrity of their play, the WBSC has taken pointers from other international sports governing bodies such as the IOC.
Fraccari went on: “Following the IOC’s and specifically the OM Unit PMC’s (Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competition) leadership in the prevention of competition manipulation, we are working towards enhancing the protection of clean baseball and softball athletes with this new agreement.”
