How Blockchain Can Provide a Crucial Solution to the Sports Betting Transparency Problem

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With sports stadiums closed across the globe and tournaments put on indefinite hiatus, the pandemic put the competitive sports industry on hold. However, in 2020, the online sports betting industry thrived.

According to Legal Sports Reports, the industry increased by 39% year over year, rising from USD 13 billion in 2019 to USD 18 billion in 2020. The burgeoning sector is set to only continue to accelerate, with Ark Invest predicting that it will increase from USD 18 billion to USD 180 billion from 2020 until 2025 and Acumen Research and Accounting predicting that the global sports betting market will have a CAGR of 10% from 2021 to 2028.

Despite the fact that the industry is experiencing rapid growth, an alarming amount of illegal sports betting is still being reported; a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirmed that the issue continues to bring organized crime connected to match-fixing. Written by 200 experts from governments, sports organizations, and private-sector firms, the review was part of a larger report on sports corruption and aims to find solutions for governments so they can combat illegal sports betting and money laundering.

Executive Director UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ghada Waly, states, “Corruption strips sport of its positive, transformative power. There is widespread recognition of the negative economic and societal consequences of corruption in sport and in particular its impact on youth. To effectively address this problem, more work is required to understand the scale, scope and manifestations of corruption in sports worldwide”.

In the findings, estimates of