Indonesia ropes in Sportsradar to crack down on football cheats

In a bid to crack down on cheats, Indonesian football association PSSI Wednesday signed an agreement with Switzerland-based Sportsradar to provide intelligence about global betting on the Indonesian Super League (ISL) and other tournaments until the end of 2016.

Sportradar's Fraud Detection System (FDS), which recently received an ISO certificate of quality, will be used to monitor betting behaviour and patterns for the remaining 290 matches of the 2014 season, including the ISL and Divisi Utama.

The FDS will cover all 1,538 matches in both the 2015 and 2016 ISL, Inter-Island Cup and Divisi Utama. The PSSI are also in discussions to start using Sportsradar's Fraud Prevention Services (FPS) to help educate those involved in Indonesian football about the dangers of match-fixing.

"We understand that approximately $65 million is bet on the ISL alone every season. This is a staggering figure. We cannot afford for even $1 of that to be placed on a manipulated outcome," said Joko Driyono, general secretary of PSSI, in a statement.

"We at the PSSI are absolutely committed to ensuring that football in Indonesia is exciting for players, attractive for sponsors and broadcasters and exhilarating for fans. Credibility and integrity is key to all of that and that is why we have brought Sportradar on board as our partners. There simply is no better system out there to highlight and explain suspicious betting behaviours around sporting events and we look over the next two and half years," he added.

Andreas Krannich, Sportsradar's managing director strategy and integrity, said the organisation would work hard to keep Indonesian football clean.

"Monitoring over 1,800 matches for the football association of Indonesia is a responsibility that we take very seriously. The PSSI have not only put their faith in us and our Fraud Detection System, but they have done so for the long term. This is a great honour and we will work tirelessly in partnership with the PSSI to ensure that full and fair competition prevails across Indonesia," he said.