LONDON/KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – 28 February 2023 – The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has signed a wide-ranging, long-term agreement for sports data and integrity leader Stats Perform to provide the BWF Integrity Unit with a range of advanced integrity services to enhance its protection of the sport.
The partnership boosts the BWF Integrity Unit’s capabilities to investigate suspicious betting activity on badminton matches and is part of continuing deterrent initiatives against potential corruptors of the sport.
Live time monitoring of betting markets for any suspicious betting activity continues to be a vital element of the BWF’s anti-match manipulation operations.
More specifically, this new partnership enables the BWF to gather intelligence on specific matches and competitions that may be connected to suspicious betting activity, and where appropriate, will be the catalyst for an investigation into suspected match manipulation.
The Stats Perform partnership provides the BWF Integrity Unit a holistic suite of tools to capitalise on. In addition to betting market monitoring, the Stats Perform partnership also covers integrity education, intelligence analysis support, and its pioneering performance integrity analysis service.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said: “Having Stats Perform onboard will strengthen our commitment to protecting the integrity of the sport from betting-related corruption.
“We now have top industry standard resources at our disposal to monitor suspicious betting activity taking place at HSBC BWF World Tour tournaments and BWF Major Championships.”
Stats Perform CEO Carl Mergele said: “The BWF are a key partner of Stats Perform and we are proud of the trust it has placed in us to both develop the sport commercially and protect it from harm.”
Jake Marsh, Global Head of Integrity Services, Stats Perform commented: “We are delighted to add BWF to our stable of clients and deliver a progressive approach to integrity risk management that will see us working closely with the international governing body’s own integrity unit to protect the sport from match manipulation and related threats.”
Stats Perform’s Integrity Services division has grown rapidly in recent years and now works with over 50 clients and partners globally across sport, including tennis, soccer, cricket, basketball and kabaddi.