LaLiga has announced a new partnership with sports wagering monitor US Integrity as it looks to cement its “preservation of integrity in sport”.
The deal will provide LaLiga with the services of ProhiBet, the prohibited betting solution launched in February 2023. ProhiBet is a joint venture between US Integrity and Odds On Compliance.
US Integrity offers wagering monitoring services to sporting stakeholders, analysing datasets to identify suspicious betting behaviour. Odds On Compliance, meanwhile, is a compliance technology and consultation firm in sports betting and gaming.
LaLiga will benefit from analytical insights that will aim to ensure Spain’s top two football leagues are played in a fair manner. Suspicious betting activity will be detected with “nefarious” behaviour acted upon thanks to monitoring alerts.
Javier Tebas, LaLiga’s president, said: “This partnership with US Integrity represents a significant milestone in our efforts to safeguard integrity and transparency in professional football.”
US Integrity chief executive and co-founder Matthew Holt added: “We’re incredibly excited to expand our international efforts and to work with LaLiga to better align our alerting processes for their future matches on a global scale.”
LaLiga the latest sporting body to utilise ProhiBet
LaLiga has joined a number of other global professional sports leagues in strengthening its betting compliance with US Integrity’s ProhiBet.
In August 2023, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Big 12 Conference became one of the first sports properties to start using ProhiBet.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts organisation, linked up with ProhiBet the following month. The aim is to prohibit UFC individuals such as athletes and coaches from placing bets on the organisation’s events.
In February, the Professional Fighters League (PFL) partnered with ProhiBet in the hopes of enhancing its betting regulatory measures.
Sportradar report shows football leads suspicious activity
On Monday, Sportradar released its annual Integrity Report for 2023, revealing it had detected 1,329 suspicious matches during 2023.
Of the 1,329 figure, football had by far the most with 880 detections, 66.2% of the total and 675 more than basketball in second.
Europe had the most significant rise in suspicious football matches, up by 15% year-on-year. Europe also led the way for number of suspicious matches across all sports with 667. This was 32 more than in 2022, the second highest year-on-year jump in detections behind Asia’s 60.
