Sports fraud detection using data mining techniques

People are loving sports in the states. Also people hate fraud activities in sports area. It is believed that too many sports frauds will lead to losing popularity and audiences, and eventually destroy the whole sport. However, for some reasons, fraud in sports has always been existing in reality. Therefore, it is essential for people to find out ways to detect sports fraud activities.

Before introducing sports fraud detection, I’d like talk a little bit about sports fraud. According to people’s observations, there are mainly three categories of fraudulent activity in sports: poor player performance, a pattern of unusual calls from the referee, and lopsided wagering. For the previous two, basically they are trying to manipulate the betting line. There are several cases have been reported by media. A recent example of this was in the summer of 2007 when NBA referee Tim Donaghy was investigated and convicted for compromising basketball games to pay off gambling debts. Lopsided wagering can be used as an indicator of a compromised game. This type of wagering could involve betting in excess of what is normally expected or betting heavily against the favorite.

As you might know, Las Vegas Sports Consultants Inc (LVSC), which sets betting lines for 90% of Las Vegas casinos, is one of the organizations that actively looks for fraudulent sports activity. What The LVSC statistically analyzes are both betting lines and player performance in order to look for any unusual activity. Player performance is judged on a letter-grade scale (i.e., A-F) and takes into account variables such as weather, luck and player health. Taken together, games are rated on a 15 point scale of seriousness. A game rated at 4 or 5 points may undergo an in-house review, 8-9 point games will involve contact with the responsible league. Leagues are similarly eager to use the services of LVSC to maintain game honesty. The LVSC counts several NCAA conferences, the NBA, NFL, and NHL, as some of its clients.

As practice, Las Vegas Sport Consultants are not the only gambling institutions with an interest in honest and fair sports events, offshore betting operations are starting to fill this role as well. One popular offshore gambling site, Betfair.com, has signed an agreement with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to help monitor games for match-fixing, unusual results, or suspicious activity.