Crime grows in step
Industry observers have attributed the increased legalization of sports betting and the rapid market growth of related verticals as the main reason behind a spike in suspicious sports betting activity in North and Central America.
reported cases almost doubling 2024 levels
Sportradar’s recently published 2025 integrity report, which it shared on X, reveals a sharp rise in the region with reported cases almost doubling 2024 levels:
The global sports betting supplier reported 84 suspicious matches in 2025 across North and Central America, with shady soccer matches rising by 42%.
Across the Pond and in South America, however, match-fixing violations have dropped 1% year-on-year.
Promising signs
Sportradar’s Executive Vice President Integrity Services, Andreas Krannichat, said the global stabilization of match-fixing was “encouraging.”
essential to staying ahead of those seeking to corrupt sport.”
Krannichat stressed that while the stability was positive, it reinforced the need to stay vigilant. “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.”
While there were 1,116 shady matches reported worldwide, Sportradar stated more than 99.5% of all global sporting events for 2025 had zero integrity concerns.
According to a news release, soccer continued to top the match-fixing charts with 618 suspicious matches, followed by basketball (233), tennis (78), table tennis (65), and cricket (59).
Against the backdrop of the surge in North and Central America’s match-fixing, Sportradar has indicated it is beefing up its integrity monitoring measures ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup scheduled in June for the USA, Canada, and Mexico.
AI crime-cracker
In its 2025 integrity report, Sportradar singled out its AI-powered Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) for praise. The Switzerland-based firm said its AI system flagged 51% more shady betting cases Y-o-Y than it did in 2024.
Sportradar said UFDS was able to uncover “irregular patterns often undetectable through traditional methods.”
