Basketball Australia launches Genius Sports partnership to fight domestic match fixing
Basketball Australia (BA) announced a new partnership today with Genius Sports, that will help protect domestic leagues from the threat of match fixing and betting-related corruption.
Genius Sports entered into an official data and integrity partnership with BA, in a move that will encompass the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) and other top-level state leagues.
By using its 24/7 bet monitoring system to monitor and evaluate real-time betting patterns from betting markets worldwide, Genius Sports will be able to detect potentially suspicious activity.
Genius Sports will also act as BA's official data partner as well, by controlling the supply of official data to legal, regulated betting operators worldwide.
Trained and accredited statisticians will work in tandem with Genius Sports to ensure official data is gathered quickly and accurately. Measures include comprehensive ongoing training, along with a unique digital platform, that will allow real-time communication between the league and statisticians.
“Official data partnerships are central to the long-term success of sport," Steven Burton, Managing Director of Genius Sports said.
"By proactively taking control of their data, Basketball Australia has secured visibility over global odds movements and ensured that betting on their competitions will be undertaken in a controlled manner in regulated markets.
“We are honoured to partner with them to protect the integrity of their competitions from the threats of match-fixing and betting-related corruption.”
Courtsiding, which involved broadcasting information from a sports event to obtain a betting advantage, has been a trending phenomenon in domestic Australian basketball competitions. This new partnership allows game data to be regulated, and undesired betting influences to be limited, when it comes to competitions at home.
Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore said, "This unique partnership will not only enable Basketball Australia to control and centralise the data provided to the regulated betting industry, but will also enable us to safeguard the integrity of our competitions from any manipulation.”
The Pick and Roll reached out to Basketball Australia, and confirmed that the focus will be on data integrity. Game data will continue to be available via the FIBA LiveStats Game Centre for all leagues, with enhanced level of controls for BA.