IBIA Reports Rising Alerts as Sign of Effective Integrity Systems in Africa’s Fast-Growing Betting Market

Africa’s regulated sports betting sector is expanding rapidly, with gross gambling revenue projected to increase from $3.5 billion in 2021 to $19.4 billion by 2030. Online betting is forecast to reach $16.4 billion, representing the majority of that growth.

Khalid Ali, chief executive of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), sees this trajectory as presenting an opportunity alongside the challenges. According to an interview with iGaming Business, digital account-based betting generates valuable intelligence for licensed operators to identify suspicious activity. Football remains the dominant product, with around 90% of IBIA’s football alerts globally involving customer accounts located outside the jurisdiction of the event.

Interpreting Rising Alert Volumes

The IBIA recorded 117 alerts relating to African sporting events between 2021 and 2025, including 31 in 2025 when Africa accounted for around 10% of all alerts globally. A further 17 alerts occurred in the first half of 2026.

Ali cautioned that it is impossible and potentially misleading to conclude more alerts automatically mean more match-fixing. Factors including growing betting activity, additional operators joining monitoring networks, and increased account-level data from regulated online betting have improved detection of suspicious patterns that may previously have gone unnoticed.

In many cases, increased alert numbers demonstrate that integrity systems are becoming more effective. Alerts are viewed as intelligence outputs requiring further investigation, not proof that manipulation has occurred. The concentration in football and tennis reflects betting demand and the volume of regulated market activity monitored.

Building Integrity Into Evolving Regulatory Frameworks

Alerts mark the start of an investigation. Successful outcomes depend on regulators, law enforcement, and sports governing bodies having appropriate legal powers, capacity, and cross-border cooperation mechanisms. Many African jurisdictions still lack clear suspicious betting reporting protocols and recognised integrity monitoring arrangements.

Ali called for sports betting integrity to become a formal component of licensing and regulatory frameworks across the continent. He pointed to Ontario and Alberta as examples of best practice, where licensed operators must participate in formal integrity monitoring, with clear reporting obligations and cooperation between operators, regulators, and sports bodies.

Restricting betting on domestic competitions may simply displace activity to poorly regulated or unregulated markets lacking transparency and monitoring. The strongest integrity outcomes come from well-regulated, competitive markets with high levels of channelisation. Africa’s developing regulated markets present an opportunity to embed these measures from the outset rather than retrofitting them later.

Reporting: iGaming Business (iGB)

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