The Netherlands gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit, has released a report detailing all potential match-fixing activity from October 2021 to December 2022.
While the regulator has no specific task force to identify match-fixing, its internal agency, the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SIBU), has set up a hotline that allows sports betting providers and others to flag suspicious activity that could be related to match-fixing.
During the reporting period, five sports betting operators reported 40 incidents of possible match-fixing to the SIBU. 83% of these reports were received in the period April – June 2022.
These included:
- 12 reports of unusual betting patterns.
- 28 reports relating to people directly involved in a
game and/or competition.
The unusual betting patterns were reported by all 5 providers and involved foreign competitions in the following sports:
- Football – 8 incidents
- Tennis – 2 incidents
- Table Tennis – 1 incident
- Snooker – 1 incident
The 28 reports of individuals betting on sports or events that they themselves were involved in were also highlighted by all 5 reporting providers. All bar 1 report were in relation to Dutch professional soccer.
- Eredivisie – 6 incidents
- Eerste Divisie – 19 – incidents
- Second Division – 2 – incidents
While some of theses were on other matches from their own league, many were matches that the individuals were directly involved in. Some bets were also combinations of their own match plus another. In most cases, the best were for low stakes.
Despite receiving the reports, the SBIU does not receive any traceable information for each individual , it does not know who the relevant person is as the provider has a duty of confidentiality on grounds of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act. However, the information is passed on to FIU-the Netherlands, which analyzes whether there is sufficient grounds to declare the transaction suspicious. If this is found to be the case, the Public Prosecution Service may be involved and the individuals sporting association will be notified.
The report also details other signals of match-fixing that were identified during the period. These included 4 signals relating to prohibited bets such as the number of yellow cards in a match. According to Dutch gambling regulations, these types of bets are not allowed as they are often related to match-fixing and illegal betting activity.
There are currently 24 legal online gambling operators in the Netherlands, of which 11 are sports betting providers. Nine of these providers launched at some point between October 2021 and March 2022 while the final two launched in July and November 2022.
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