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Sportradar underscored its commitment to protecting the integrity of global sport by working with its partners to support 65 sanctions: 46 sporting sanctions, 15 criminal sanctions and four sanctions that were both sporting and criminal.
Match fixing continues to pose a dangerous threat to the integrity of football globally especially with the growing popularity and influence of betting, with international betting reaching a turnover of €1.45 trillion.
According to statistics, over 903 football matches around the world had suspicious activity directly involved with betting last year, with East Africa among the biggest hotspots for such activity.
It is upon that background that the Federation of Uganda Football Association has joined hands with FIFA and partners Sports Radar to help curb the illicit activities in the local game.
On Monday morning, FUFA confirmed that they had entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Sports Radar - a Switzerland-based sports data and technology company, to monitor every bet and look out for irregularities.
The global game is under attack, everyone is trying to fight the growing vice of match fixing, and as Uganda we are part of it as well because we are exposed to the same threat,” Magogo told a press conference in Mengo.
“We are all at risk. We have heard what is happening in Kenya recently, and we have seen instances before in our local games, so we need to come up and fight this cancer.”
“It is a duty of everybody to help us fight this vice from killing our football, and not only the Uganda Premier League but all the competitions in the country because there is potential to be subjected to this vice,” he added.
“These are things that could affect the economic functioning of the sport, affect the jobs for everyone including the investors as well.”
“So as FUFA, we have come up with different tools to help us fight against match fixing, importantly joining hands with Sports Radar to help us detect and carry out investigations against the vice.”
As part of our immediate response, we have come out with a number to help us better report and have instant response.
If you have information that may give us a lead, reach out to FUFA via the telephone number 0787063409, you can also email us at protect@fufa.co.ug,” he continued.
Last week, a Ugandan, a Russian and a Kenyan were arrested on Friday night in Nairobi, Kenya for allegedly involving themselves in acts of match-fixing.
According to Kenyan publication Daily Nation, the three were identified as Akhiad Kubiev, a Russian, Martin Munga Mutua, a Kenyan and Ugandan Bernard Navendi.
The three allegedly approached former footballer Festo Omukoto to aid fix a game between Nairobi City Stars versus Sofapaka slated for Saturday afternoon.
They are said to have been tipped Kshs. 30,000 (shs. 960,000) to cater for their transportation to the meeting venue and had been promised $14,000 (shs. 51 million) if the deal went through.
Omukoto, is serving a four-year FIFA ban for involving himself in acts of manipulating and fixing a game in 2019. He was banned alongside Ugandan player George Mandela who was banned for life from taking part in any football-related activities.
Sportradar’s bet-monitoring service, the Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), has helped uncover suspicious activity in 76 countries worldwide in 2022.
In 2022 alone, suspicious activity rose by 2.4% alongside record levels of global sports betting turnover. In 2021, Sportradar reported that approximately €165 million was generated in match-fixing betting profit.
Sportradar underscored its commitment to protecting the integrity of global sport by working with its partners to support 65 sanctions: 46 sporting sanctions, 15 criminal sanctions and four sanctions that were both sporting and criminal.
These were delivered in 11 countries across football and tennis, with lifetime bans handed down to eight athletes.
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