Starlizard Integrity Services (SIS), a division of the London-based sports betting and data consultancy owned by Brighton FC’s Tony Bloom, has flagged 79 soccer games worldwide as “suspicious” during the first half of 2023. In SIS speak, this means it found shady betting patterns around the games that may point to match-fixing.

In a news release Wednesday, SIS stated it believes that “all matches so identified would warrant further investigation.”

Out the 16,336 games analyzed, SIS revealed 35% of suspect matches occurred in just three countries, with one country responsible for 15% of the alerts. While SIS did not reveal the offending countries, it stated 40 suspicious games took place in the the UEFA confederation region, and 11 in the South American Football Confederation region.

The arm of the data consultancy that has given Bloom’s soccer franchise an edge in finding talent also noted the rise in more sophisticated and diverse betting activity. As an example, the SIS press release illustrated the increase in first half only bets.

“the spectre of match-fixing” continues to affect soccer

SIS Head Affy Sheikh stated that “the spectre of match-fixing” continues to affect soccer. Over the last three years, SIS has noted “similar levels of suspicion,” an ongoing issue Sheikh said underlined the need for a stronger response from anti-corruption stakeholders.