Use of Data Scouts in the Online Gambling Industry to Target Suburban Sports

Written By Janice Doughtrey

According to an investigation that was conducted recently, international gambling companies use data from play-by-play to control betting activities on amateur and local sports in Australia. Sportsradar, a firm monitoring match-fixing for FIFA, currently uses a low-profile subsidiary to get access data from amateur sporting competitions. Sportsradar collects data to feed offshore live betting sites. Real Time Sportscasts, a Sportsradar’s subsidiary, targets students from universities and sends them to semi-professional, low level and amateur people to collect live data about games. The scouts submit findings to a call center so that it can be distributed to gambling websites managed by international companies. The use of data by foreign gambling companies usually leads people to fix matches on Local Australian games.

Due to such recent manipulations on betting, Senator Nick Xenophon said that he would do the best he can to ensure that tight laws are put in place to govern gambling business. He said that there was a lot of alterations on sporting codes and the high chances of compromising officials and players. Senator Nick added that it is not good for the country to let gambling control their amateur games and amateur sporting codes.

However, there is no concrete evidence on such activities in Australia. Andreas Krannich, the managing director of integrity and strategy at Sportradar defended Real Time Sportscasts’ intentions of using scouts at a local game’s level. Mr. Andreas said that the company does not send scouts to such local events. He added that scouts come from bookmakers.

Senator Xenophone also stated that there was the need to have a look at the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Sportsradar and Australian Federal Police (AFP). He also said that in case the AFP does not willingly produce the documents, they will gain access to the MOU through the Senate. Background Briefing requested for the memorandum, and alerts sent over suspicious players and matches. Numerous documents were uncovered as a result of the request for freedom of information by Background Briefing. Australia Federal Police refused to submit documents by stating that releasing the data would have negative implications on intelligence operations and investigations. AFP noted that the services that Sportradar provides to its commercial partners are confidential.