Sportradar’s integrity service partners with another North American sports league

tradar has partnered with the NHL to offer the North American sports league its Fraud Detection System (FDS) service.

The FDS monitors betting patterns on sporting events and can notify analysts with alerts when flagging up sizeable changes in betting patterns.

It was predicted by Sportradar that over 2,000 sporting events that took place between 2009 and 2015 were likely to have been manipulated, according to the FDS, and Sportradar monitors betting trends with over 550 operators.

Sportradar is already a third-party data provider for the NHL as well as the NFL, and was reported to be close to agreeing a six-year data partnership with the NBA, worth $250m, by Bloomberg earlier this month.

It will now be possible for Sportradar to track all regular season and postseason NHL games.

Andreas Krannich, Sportrdar Managing Director, Integrity Services, said: “Our award-winning FDS monitors over 100,000 matches across 12 sports around the world each year and we are delighted the NHL has chosen this system, that oversees all relevant operators and markets, to bolster its integrity defences.”

Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, told Toronto’s Sportsnet 590 in June he is not concerned about gambling activity affecting the integrity of ice hockey, stating: “I don’t worry about the integrity of the game.

“Our players are professionals. Their integrity, their values are right on, so that’s not the issue from our standpoint."

That is in contrast with the collective viewpoint of the four major North American sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, who oppose New Jersey’s plans to allow racetracks and casinos to offer sports betting in the state.

On the partnership with Sportradar, Bettman said: “While we have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our sports and our games, Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System provides an additional layer of security and protection.”