When Calvin Ridley was suspended for betting on NFL games in 2022, it was largely dismissed as an isolated incident among the four biggest North American professional leagues in the era of legalized sports gambling.
He served a yearlong suspension, penned a lengthy apology calling it “an isolated lapse in judgement,” and was reinstated in March.
But in April, when three players were disciplined for betting on NFL games and two more for placing wagers on non-league games, followed this month by an investigation into another player, a spotlight shone not just on the NFL but U.S. sports betting as a whole. While none of the players’ actions were related to attempts to fix games, the incidents have driven a public conversation about the integrity of pro sports as legalized sports betting takes a greater hold.
“Leagues are dancing with the devil,” said Declan Hill, a professor at the University of New Haven who consults for Interpol and pioneered the first online anti-match-fixing education course. “Here’s what happens. There’ll be one play that’s kind of weird and dubious and sports fans will start to go, ‘Was that legitimate?’ And then there’ll be another one. And another one and another one. And after a few years, the sports leagues will have a problem. Because their fundamental credibility is being debated by their fans.”
The discussion comes at a time when athletes in the U.S. are closer to gambling than ever before.
Images of players are being used in sportsbook advertisements. Sportsbook ads have prominent placement in stadiums and arenas, including some with onsite betting. Major League Baseball — long the most gambling-averse of the U.S. leagues — now permits its players to be ambassadors for gambling companies.
It’s the backdrop for legal sports betting in the U.S. that’s generating huge revenue, with Americans wagering more than $220 billion during the five years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to offer sports betting. The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are among the biggest winners, turning official data that is the lifeblood of in-game betting into profits by selling it to technology companies that distribute it to sportsbooks. Leagues have partnered with those same tech companies to help them watch for fraud.
The potential pitfalls of gambling were highlighted by Switzerland-based Sportradar, which has data and monitoring agreements with the NBA, MLB and the NHL. In its second annual report on “Betting Corruption and Match-Fixing,” released in March, the company said that while data for 2022 gleaned from its Universal Fraud Detection System showed that more than 99% of sporting events are free from betting corruption, it “remains a constant and growing threat across the world of sport.”
Sportradar’s systems flagged more than 1,200 suspicious games in 12 different sports spanning 92 countries last year. The highest number of suspicious games (775) were in soccer.
Soccer is the most bet on sport globally ($792 billion last year). Among individual leagues per game, the NFL ($150 million) was behind only UEFA Champions League ($245 million) and English Premier League ($220 million) last year. The NBA also made the top 10 ($76 million).
Sportradar Integrity Services managing director Andreas Krannich noted fixing efforts are found mostly in lower-tier sports and leagues.
, but said they are constantly in a race to update tools “to try to catch up or to stay ahead of the criminals.”
“We are not naive. We know that as long as there’s human beings there will be always corruption. It’s the same in sport,” Krannich said.
Though technology companies’ monitoring methods vary, there are similarities. All use systems that scan the betting market for irregularities, such as abnormal amounts wagered on events. The companies then alert their clients (leagues and sportsbooks) of possible manipulation.
The NFL has contracted with London-based Genius Sports since 2021. The NBA extended its agreement with Sportradar in 2021. The NHL and MLB also incorporate Sportradar into their protection measures. Genius Sports, StatsPerform and Swish Analytics also have deals to be U.S. distributors of MLB’s data.
