<p>During the first three months of 2025, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) flagged 63 dubious betting activities, with the majority of them relating to football.</p>
<p>This figure represents an 11% rise compared to the adjusted number of 57 reported in <a href=”https://ibia.bet/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FINAL-Q1-2025_2904.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>the same period last year</a>, according to the IBIA’s report. Nevertheless, it is slightly below the 65 questionable betting alerts issued in the <a href=”https://igamingbusiness.com/sustainable-gambling/sports-integrity/ibia-report-suspicious-betting-alerts-2024/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>last quarter of 2024</a>.</p>
<p>Football continued to be the sport attracting the most scrutiny from the IBIA. It was the subject of 31 alerts during the quarter, accounting for 49% of all alerts during this period. Just like last year, football also saw the most alerts in Q1 as well as throughout 2024.</p>
<p>Tennis, table tennis, and basketball were joint runners-up, each receiving nine alerts. Four alerts were related to esports betting, and there was one alert concerning horse racing.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-mexico-and-brazil-football-betting-a-concern-for-ibia”>Football Betting in Mexico and Brazil Raises IBIA’s Concern</h2>
<p>In terms of geographical distribution, North America witnessed the highest number of alerts (17). Among these, nine were related to football betting in Mexico and six to basketball betting in the US. The remaining two alerts involved football betting activities in Jamaica.</p>
<p>In Europe, 15 alerts were registered, with table tennis accounting for nine of these. Seven of these alerts were associated with table tennis betting in the Czech Republic and two in Germany. The rest were scattered across numerous countries and involved basketball, football, and horse racing.</p>
<p>South America also reported a significant number of alerts (11), nine of which were linked to football betting in Brazil. This equalled Mexico for the highest number of alerts for a single country. Single alerts were also noted for football and tennis betting in Ecuador and Argentina, respectively.</p>
<p>Six alerts were raised in Africa, all related to football. The Ivory Coast had the most with three, while Algeria, Burundi, and Tunisia each had one.</p>
<p>While no alerts were raised in Australasia, the IBIA did issue four global esports alerts. The organisation does not assign esports alerts to specific countries due to the unclear location of the hosted events.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-welcome-reduction-in-tennis-alerts”>Decline in Tennis Alerts Welcomed</h2>
<p>IBIA’s CEO Khalid Ali remarked that the number of alerts in Q1 remained relatively stable. He welcomed the decrease in tennis alerts but expressed concern over table tennis betting.</p>
<p>“The drop from quarter to quarter was mainly due to a decline in tennis alerts, which have thankfully decreased in recent years,†Ali commented. “The increase in table tennis alerts in Q4 2024 did not persist into Q1 2025 and has returned to normal levels.</p>
<p>“We have implemented additional safeguards for this sport. In Q1, we established several new integrity partnerships and protocols with the objective of identifying and penalising fraudulent betting activity.â€</p>
<p>The IBIA collaborates with over 80 companies across more than 140 betting brands globally. It monitors 50% of all regulated commercial online betting activities and 30% of all regulated betting operations across retail and online platforms.</p>
