Starlizard Integrity Services identifies 159 suspicious football matches played globally in 2024
New report analyses over 74,000 games in national and international competitions, as well as friendly matches.
LONDON, March 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sports integrity specialists Starlizard Integrity Services (SIS) have identified 159 football matches played around the world in 2024 as suspicious.
In a major study, monitoring and analysing 74,386 football matches played in 2024, SIS found that 159 - representing 0.21% of the analysed matches - showed indicators of potential manipulation. This is a drop from the 171 suspicious matches identified in 2023 (0.23% of that year's analysed matches).
The SIS 2024 data revealed that:
Matches analysed by SIS are categorised as "suspicious" when they are found to have suspect betting patterns associated with them that may be indicative of match-fixing. While the level of suspicion will vary across matches depending on the nature and amount of evidence discovered, SIS believes that all matches so identified would warrant further investigation. Furthermore, note that annual figures are likely to change after the publication of a report, as a result of SIS analysing matches retrospectively – for example, in response to new intelligence or in support of subsequent investigations.
The full report can be downloaded at: www.starlizardintegrity.com.
Affy Sheikh, Head of Starlizard Integrity Services, commented: "We are encouraged by the findings of the 2024 report, which show a slight decrease in the number and proportion of suspicious football matches compared to the previous year. Any fall in the level of suspicious matches is to be welcomed as it may indicate that efforts to enhance the integrity of football are making a positive impact.
That being said, the data also highlights ongoing concerns, particularly an apparent shift towards the South American region.
This, together with the continued high prevalence of suspicious betting on First-Half Only markets and the persistence of suspicious activity in friendly matches, underscore the ongoing need for vigilance and robust measures to combat match manipulation. Starlizard Integrity Services remain committed to working with our partners across the globe to ensure the integrity of football at all levels, particularly through our Komodo anti-match-fixing platform, which is available for free to sports governing bodies and law enforcement agencies".
About Starlizard Integrity Services
Starlizard Integrity Services (SIS) is the specialist integrity division of Starlizard, the London-based sports betting consultancy. Starlizard's detailed understanding of sport and sporting performance, as well as its active involvement in betting markets, affords a unique perspective, enabling the company to know better than anyone else in the world when betting markets and sporting contests look wrong. Starlizard has been providing independent integrity services for sports governing bodies and associations since 2010, and established SIS in 2017 as a dedicated resource to focus entirely on this work. Combining its deep insight into how betting markets should behave with detailed on-pitch performance data analysis and research, SIS is ideally placed to identify suspicious matches and betting patterns. In 2023, SIS launched its award-winning Komodo online anti-match-fixing platform, which is free to use for sports governing bodies and law enforcement agencies, providing them with alerts and suspicious match reports designed for evidential use. For more information, visit www.starlizardintegrity.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Korea Herald
As Ecuador battles gangs, lawmakers approve return of foreign military bases
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) -- Ecuador's parliament on Tuesday gave the green light for the establishment of foreign military bases in the country as it seeks international assistance in its battle against violent drug gangs. Foreign bases were outlawed in Ecuador in 2009, but President Daniel Noboa has vowed to bring them back as he pursues a crackdown on cartels blamed for turning what was once one of the region's most peaceful countries into one of its most violent. Noboa has asked US President Donald Trump for military backing and in February said he would invite "special forces" from unnamed allied countries to help. He has announced an alliance with US mercenary Erik Prince, founder of security contractor Blackwater, and said last month that Israel wants to help Ecuador with intelligence. Noboa, 37, was sworn in for a second term in May after claiming a runaway reelection victory with promises to take an "iron fist" to gangsters. Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation's ports. There are an estimated 40,000 gang members in Ecuador, the president has said, and about 20 gangs with links to international cartels. Noboa last year declared Ecuador to be in an internal armed conflict, empowering him to deploy the armed forces in the streets and prisons. But despite his tough-on-crime policies, Ecuador has the highest murder rate in Latin America. The US had a military base in the South American country, at the fishing port of Manta, until 2009 when a constitutional prohibition entered into effect that Noboa wants overturned. With 82 votes out of 151 members, Ecuador's unicameral National Assembly with its pro-government majority on Tuesday approved a constitutional reform to allow for such bases to be brought back. "This is a decisive contribution to security ... and for the return of peace to Ecuadoran territory," the parliament stated on X. In a separate statement, it said the reform had "the aim of strengthening international cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime." The measure would allow for "the recovery of national security through strategic cooperation, intelligence sharing, and technology transfer, which will strengthen the operational capacities of the state," the congress added. The Constitutional Court must now review the text of the reform, which will then be submitted to a referendum. Parliamentary backers of socialist ex-leader Rafael Correa -- on whose watch foreign bases were outlawed -- voted against the measure.
Korea Herald
7 days ago
- Korea Herald
Bangladesh opens trial of deposed prime minister
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year. The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief, before the court on June 16. Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2024, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also in India. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al Mamun has been arrested. Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina in December. State-run Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live. Hasina and her Awami League party had earlier criticized the tribunal and its prosecution team for their connection with political parties, especially with the Jamaat-e-Islami party. In an investigation report submitted on May 12, the tribunal's investigators brought five allegations of crimes against humanity against Hasina and the two others during the mass uprising in July-August last year. According to the charges, Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and the denial of medical treatment to the wounded. The charges describe Hasina as the 'mastermind, conductor and superior commander' of the atrocities. Three days after Hasina's ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the nation's interim leader. The Yunus-led administration, which has already banned the Awami League party, amended relevant laws to allow for the trial of the former ruling party for its role during the uprising. In February, the UN human rights office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks in the crackdown on the student-led protests against Hasina, who ruled the country for 15 years. The tribunal was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and try crimes involving Bangladesh's independence war in 1971. The tribunal under Hasina tried politicians, mostly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for their actions during the nine-month war against Pakistan. Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father and the country's first leader. In a separate development, Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday cleared the path for the Jamaat-e-Islami party to regain its registration as a political party after a decade — a decision that would enable the party to take part in elections. The country's top court overturned a previous High Court verdict and said it is now up to the Election Commission to formally restore the registration of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party and its election symbol. Yunus said his administration would hold the election by June 2026, but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's archrival, wants the election to be held in December this year. The relation between Zia's party, which is the largest in absence of Hasina's party, and the Yunus-led government has recently been frosty over the poll schedule.
Korea Herald
25-05-2025
- Korea Herald
Ecuador's Noboa vows to reduce murders, boost economy at inauguration
QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) -- Business heir Daniel Noboa was sworn in for a full term as Ecuador's president on Saturday, promising to press the South American country's fight against drug gangs and boost sluggish economic growth. Noboa, elected in 2023 to finish out his predecessor's term, won an April vote by an unexpectedly wide margin, despite claims of fraud by his leftist rival. In a ceremony at the National Assembly on Saturday, he was sworn in by the body's president, Niels Olsen Peet. Olsen placed a presidential sash over Noboa's shoulders and they raised their joined hands in a moment of celebration. "The progressive reduction of homicides will be a non-negotiable goal. We will maintain our fight against drug trafficking, seize illegal weapons, ammunition, and explosives, and exercise greater control at the country's ports," Noboa told the assembly about his new term. During his 18 months in office, Noboa declared war on criminal groups, using decrees to deploy the military on the streets, beefing up security at ports and lengthening sentences for drug crimes and terrorism. He also inked a $4 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund, sought to reduce a $4.6 billion fiscal deficit and met with Chinese banks to discuss possible loans. "We are creating a safe, stable, and competitive environment that fosters growth, protects investments, and guarantees real opportunities," Noboa said. The 37-year-old has said cooperation with the United States, Israel and El Salvador will help the country fight drug trafficking and attract foreign investment. His administration has hired Blackwater founder and private security executive Erik Prince to advise security forces, drawing criticism from the opposition and some rights advocates. Though Noboa has touted a 15 percent reduction in violent deaths during 2024, the first four months of 2025 saw a 58 percent spike in the figure, to 3,094, compared to the same period last year, according to government figures. He has said the economy is set to grow 4 percent this year, though the central bank predicts 2.8 percent growth. Noboa will need to seek financing, analysts say, amid a public debt burden of 51.8 percent of gross domestic product, high country risk that makes bond issues difficult and a fall in oil production, one of the country's top exports.
