Sportradar ties up with International Ski and Snowboard Federation to monitor €40m betting market
Sportradar announced on Tuesday that its Integrity Services unit has entered a partnership with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS). The two Switzerland-based entities have signed a multi-year deal that will see the governing body of international skiing and snowboarding receive risk analyses through the monitoring of betting activity in a fast-growing market involving several FIS-sanctioned competitions globally.
With a collective of upcoming and ongoing world events, the skiing and snowboarding betting industry is expected to have a lot of activity. ©Sebastian Staines/Unsplash
Background on FIS
At the moment, 132 national skiing associations operate under the FIS. The entity initially catered only to skiing events across the globe and at the Olympics before including snowboarding under its banner this year. The international regulators now oversee skiing and snowboarding events like Alpine Skiing, Cross-country Skiing, Ski Jumping, Freestyle Skiing, Snowboarding, and more.
Following a recent rise in betting activity on the sport, Sportradar is understood to have reached out to the FIS to offer a comprehensive risk assessment service – one that is currently used by more than 180 sports authorities including UEFA, NBA, Serie A and a host of big-name sportsbooks who are in partnership with Sportradar. Sarah Fussek, the Director of Sports Integrity at FIS, shed light on how the entity was going to benefit from the contributions of Sportradar.
“The insight provided to us by Sportradar Integrity Services regarding the global betting landscape within our sports and the associated risk factors will put us in the best possible position to counteract any integrity-related threats. It is essential to us that robust provisions are in place in order to safeguard our competitions, and this agreement enables us to do this in the strongest way possible going forward as we gain a detailed understanding of the integrity risks facing our sports.”
Sportradar has spotted a rapid growth in betting amounts
This tie-up will see FIS receiving in-depth analysis of all the competitions they conduct. According to the integrity unit of Sportradar, the estimated betting activity revolving around major FIS events per season will surpass the €40,000,000 mark. This assessment is backed by a mention of either upcoming or ongoing world events in the space such as the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup will be responsible for the majority of the bets.
As usual, the deal will mean that Sportradar utilises its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) to keep an eye on all betting activity that takes place around FIS competitions. The UFDS is Sportradar’s flagship monitoring system that has become ubiquitous across the global sports industry. According to Sportradar, the UFDS has helped their analysts spot over 7,700 suspicious matches across sports since inception, with a 1,000 of those coming this year. Sportradar Integrity Services Managing Director Andreas Krannich said that this partnership with FIS would act, first, as a preventive measure.
“Skiing and snowboarding disciplines have become increasingly popular across global betting markets in recent times, with this betting interest only expected to increase in the coming years. Therefore, the formation of this partnership demonstrates both parties’ commitment to mitigating any integrity-related threats that may occur. We look forward to building our relationship with FIS throughout this agreement as we seek to uphold the integrity of all FIS’ competitions.”
Several sports authorities around the globe rely on Sportradar for its data analysis and integrity services. Earlier this year, Sportradar extended an existing deal with FanDuel for betting services related to the NBA.
