Sportradar, a global sports technology company that collects, processes, and distributes real-time sports data, has found there was a 1% decline in match fixing cases across the world of professional sport.
In its Integrity in Action: 2025 Global Analysis & Trends” report, released today, it found 99.5% of sports events worldwide that the company monitored were free from suspicion in 2025.
Numbers “encouraging” but still work to do, says Executive Vice President
The report monitored more than 1 million events across 70 sports worldwide in 2025 and the 1% decrease in match fixing instances improved to one in 709 matches. In 2024, the rate was one in 608 events.
Despite the results, Andreas Krannich, Executive Vice President, Integrity Services at Sportradar, warned there was work to do to eradicate the practice from professional sport.
He said: “The relative stabilization of suspicious match numbers in 2025 is encouraging, yet it reinforces the importance of continued vigilance. 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.”
Sportradar has increasingly focused on education and prevention as a frontline defense against match-fixing, rolling out integrity training programs aimed at athletes, officials, and sports administrators worldwide.
The company delivers workshops and digital training modules that explain how match-fixing schemes typically operate, how criminal syndicates target players and referees, and what warning signs participants should look out for, such as unsolicited social media contact or pressure from intermediaries.
Soccer remains the most targeted sport
The report also revealed that soccer remains the sport most heavily targeted by match-fixing in 2025, despite a year-on-year decline in suspicious activity detected by its integrity monitoring systems.
The company flagged 618 soccer matches as suspicious during the year, down from 730 in 2024, a reduction of 112 cases. Soccer continues to account for by far the largest share of alerts across all sports monitored, reflecting its global reach, high betting liquidity, and the vulnerability of lower-tier competitions. Basketball ranked second with 233 suspicious matches, up from 187 the previous year.
Meanwhile.while tennis recorded 78 cases, compared with 69 in 2024. Notable increases were also seen in cricket and table tennis, according to Sportradar data.
Geographically, Europe reported the highest number of suspicious matches in 2025, although cases fell by 66 from the previous year. South America also saw a decline, while Asia, Africa, and North and Central America experienced modest increases. North and Central America recorded 44 suspicious matches, up from 31 in 2024.
Advent of AI helping identify match-fixing patterns
Sportradar said it relied heavily on artificial intelligence to detect potential match-fixing in 2025, using its AI-driven Universal Fraud Detection System to analyze betting activity in real time.
The system processes large volumes of global wagering data to identify irregular betting patterns that may not be visible through traditional monitoring methods. Sportradar said the number of suspicious matches flagged by the AI platform rose 56% year over year, underscoring its growing role in integrity surveillance.
The company added that it supported 125 sporting sanctions during the year, spanning seven different sports and all six major continents. That figure pushed the total number of sanctions assisted by Sportradar since launching its integrity services to more than 1,000, highlighting the expanding use of data-led enforcement in the fight against corruption in sport.
High profile instances of match-fixing continues to cause concern
While match-fixing is on the decline, there have been some high-profile instances of late that have kept integrity concerns firmly in focus.
In the U.S., an investigation involving the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has examined suspicious betting activity linked to individual player performance. Authorities have been probing whether inside information was used to exploit player prop markets, a case that underscored the growing scrutiny on micro-betting and data leakage at the highest levels of professional sport.
Soccer has also faced renewed fallout abroad. In Israel, multiple players and officials were sanctioned following an extensive domestic investigation into match manipulation in lower-tier leagues, with authorities describing the scheme as one of the most serious integrity breaches in the country’s soccer history.
At the collegiate level in the U.S., a separate scandal has centered on prop betting in college sports, where athletes were accused of influencing specific in-game outcomes. The case has intensified pressure on regulators and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to tighten rules around betting markets tied to amateur competitions.
