Bally’s Corp has joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), a non-profit organization that monitors and reports suspicious betting activity to thwart corruption in the sports betting industry.
IBIA’s Newest Member
The U.S. sports betting industry has many internal and external organizations monitoring and reporting unusual or suspicious gambling activity. They are critical to the very existence of professional sports franchises and mobile sportsbooks alike because if the public perceives that games are not on the up-and-up then they become nothing more than professional wrestling exhibitions.
This is why pro sports franchises treat gambling offenses much more severely than any other penalty including drug offenses, domestic abuse, and just about anything else except for rape and murder. Transparency and integrity are the keys to any sports league and due to the growing popularity of regulated sports betting in the United States, monitoring gambling activity has become much more vigilant than ever.
Strengthening Security
Bally’s Corp has recently joined one of the oldest and most well-known sports monitoring services in the industry, the International Betting Integrity Association, founded in 2005 and launched in the U.S. and Canada in 2022.
Robeson Reeves, CEO of Bally’s Corporation, said: “We are thrilled to join the International Betting Integrity Association. This partnership aligns with our commitment to provide a safe and secure betting environment for our customers. As we continue to expand our footprint globally, we look forward to contributing to IBIA’s mission of upholding the integrity of sports betting worldwide.”
NBA Monitors Betting
All the major professional leagues work with domestic and international sports monitoring bodies and the NBA is no exception to the rule. The league, like many others, has its own internal sources but it also relies on Sportradar and U.S. Integrity, whose principal purpose is to make sure that there is no suspicious betting activity in the retail and mobile sports betting market including the NBA.
The International Betting Integrity Association is headquartered in Belgium and is a relative newcomer to the American and Canadian markets. However, its proprietary Monitoring & Alert Platform is its primary weapon in combatting corruption in the industry.
Championing Regulated Sports Betting
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was an early supporter of sports betting while others like the NFL’s Roger Goodell were still railing about the evils of sports betting and how its presence could affect the integrity of the league. Goodell’s fire-and-brimstone rants ended abruptly when PASPA was overturned in 2018 and the leagues were now able to avail themselves of a previously untapped revenue stream of sportsbook sponsorships.
Silver is a visionary and a realist who believes that a regulated sports betting market is preferable to one that is not, saying, “In a legalized structure, there’s transparency. Just as in cases we’ve dealt with where very sophisticated computers when there’s aberrational behavior, you become aware of that rather than betting that takes place in the shadows or underground.”
And that is ultimately why organizations like the IBIA and others exist. It combats the efforts of bad actors to contaminate the market and keeps it level for sportsbooks and bettors alike.
