Sportradar extends Tennis Australia partnership
Sports data services provider Sportradar has extended its partnership with Tennis Australia to offer data content, encoding technology and integrity services to Australia’s tennis body.
The partnership started in late 2016 and was extended this year after what Sportradar described as a “competitive tender process.”
Among the services Sportradar will provide is use of its Integrity Fraud Detection Services, which are intended to protect all matches from betting-related integrity threats.
The extension of the partnership was announced to coincide with Tennis Australia’s flagship event, the Australian Open.
“The Australian Open is a hugely popular event across the world,” Sportradar’s managing director for sports partnerships, David Lampitt said. “Tennis Australia has a truly innovative and progressive approach to nurturing and advancing the interests of the game.
“Our combination of cutting-edge technology together with our expertise across data, AV and integrity services will continue to support those aims. Our own mission in partnering with rights holders like Tennis Australia is clear – we have an ongoing and long-term commitment to safeguarding tennis, whilst delivering investment into premium content enabling the continued growth of the game across the world.”
The announcement comes after the Global Lottery Monitoring System, the sports betting integrity body for the lottery industry, last week issued its 2019 Monitoring & Intelligence Report. In the report, GLMS revealed that it flagged 26 tennis matches to the Tennis Integrity Unit, though none of these were in Oceania.
Last week, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), also revealed it received 138 reports over suspicious match activity in 2019, the lowest annual amount since its integrity data was first made public in 2015.
In 2016, Concerns over match fixing in a mixed doubles game at the Australian Open led to a suspension of betting and players being interviewed by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).