The matches were held in a range of leagues across the world between 1 January and 30 June, with 31% of them taking place in the top league of each match's particular country.

SIS analysed 18,845 matches during this period, with the flagged matches representing 0.45% of this sample size.

Data from SIS marked 84 matches as suspicious, which is defined as a match that has suspect betting patterns associated with it, a possible indication of match-fixing.

Despite variations in levels of suspicion for the matches in question, SIS maintains that all flagged matches warrant further investigation.

Starlizard Head Affy Sheikh said: "These statistics provide an insight into the extent of suspected match-fixing in football – and underline the need for greater diligence in combating the ever-present threat of match manipulation in the sport. The rate of suspected match manipulations in football in the first half of this year is consistent with that of the two previous years.

“It is also deeply worrying to see top-level domestic competitions featuring so prominently amongst these suspicious matches, which perhaps dispels the common misconception that match manipulation tends to occur only in the lower leagues.”

The data revealed that the matches were held in 30 different countries, with 49% of them in the European confederation region and 25% in the Asian confederation region.

International matches made up 14%, with 6% of them being non-competitive friendly matches.

In March, Starlizard renewed its partnership with the Moldovan Football Federation, in an effort to combat the threat of match-fixing in Moldova.