International Handball Federation strikes Sportradar partnership

Sports data provider Sportradar and the International Handball Federation (IHF) have agreed a multi-year deal to ensure the integrity of global handball events. 

Sportradar Integrity Services will provide bet monitoring to the federation via its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), covering both the men’s and women’s World, Junior and Youth World Championships, as well as the IHF Super Globe.

UFDS analyses betting patterns for abnormalities and any suspicious matches are subsequently reported to partners, allowing critical visibility into worldwide match-fixing. 

Sportradar Integrity Services has detected over 6,500 suspicious matches during the past 16 years, with more than 750 such events in 2021 alone.

“We recognize the modern-day integrity threats that face global sport, and handball is no exception,” said IHF president Dr Hassan Moustafa. “The IHF makes it a top priority to have robust measures in place to help safeguard the integrity of our major events, not just at men’s and women’s senior level, but also at youth and junior level. 

“Sportradar have a proven track record in the field of sports integrity, and the depth of their bet monitoring capabilities will help to support our overall integrity programme in the years ahead.”

Sportradar Integrity Services managing director Andreas Krannich added: “We are delighted to partner with IHF to help support their integrity programme with our UFDS bet monitoring solution. We have witnessed rising integrity issues in handball over the past five years, and so we credit the vigilance shown by IHF in adding to the integrity provisions surrounding their events. 

“At Sportradar, we are fully committed to assisting our partners’ integrity efforts and look forward to working together with the IHF to support the journey of global handball in the coming years.”

Shares in Sportradar AG (NSQ:SRAD) gained 2.67 per cent to close at $21.90 per share in New York Friday.