Global football and tennis remain at most risk of match-fixing, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has reported.

Total alerts for 2025 were up YoY across all sports, for a total of 300 – the highest count since the start of the decade. Football and tennis stood out in particular, with each contributing 110 and 74 alerts respectively.

The other sports category brought in the most alerts at 116, but it encompassed all other disciplines that the IBIA is keeping an eye on – such as cricket, basketball, table tennis, and more.

During the year, a total of 54 matches investigated due to IBIA data have been proved to be corrupted, while the organisation’s alerts also led to the sanctioning of a total of 24 players across different sports.

Europe by far remains the most affected region worldwide, with total alerts coming at sub-100 only in 2024, and crossing the 100 mark every other year since 2021.

Asia is the second at-most-risk geography within the IBIA’s report, with the other three – South America, North America and Africa – being relatively equal in numbers.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, commented: “Our 2025 data highlights a familiar integrity risk pattern, with football and tennis continuing to account for most suspicious betting activity. At the same time, the greater scale and reach of our Global Monitoring and Alert Platform means our ability to detect, assess and support investigations across markets and sports has increased. 

“This is driven by operator intelligence generated by our membership and their continued commitment to identifying, disrupting and preventing betting-related corruption through collective action and information-sharing with our partners.”

The African integrity agenda

Africa’s regional sports integrity is of particular interest to the IBIA given some of the organisation’s members, which are locally present, such as Rwanda’ pawaTech. The continent hides plenty of growth opportunities for operators given the sheer population sizes, but at times can also be hindered by technological hurdles.

Regardless, the IBIA and its members estimate that the African total GGR will grow to up to $19.4bn by 2030, growing from the $3.5bn in 2021 – with the biggest contributor to that being online betting, making up $16.4bn of the total 2030 prediction.

Divided by country, IBIA-commissioned data from H2 Gambling Capital places South Africa as the current leader in generating online betting GGR (29%), Nigeria second at 10%, and Ghana third with 8%. Smaller markets will, however, become significant growth drivers going forward, H2 Gambling Capital added.

Botswana for example is taking active measures to strengthen its relevance on the African gambling map – both in iGaming and sports betting. The former CEO of the local regulator, Emolemo Kesitilwe, spoke exclusively to SBC News shortly after Betway acquired the rights to enter Botswana with its iGaming platform.

Kesitilwe highlighted that the country is emerging as one of the fast movers on the African scene thanks to a growing commitment to player responsibility from both policymakers and industry stakeholders.

Speaking of responsible gambling, while South Africa might be the leader in online betting GGR in terms of total market share, the nation is undergoing important legislative changes to address a rising problem gambling concern.

The South African government is conducting consultations on a proposed tax increase, which if adopted will probably see the legalisation of online casinos – significantly expanding the authorities’ powers to combat the growing gambling harm rates.