IOC to Watch for Match Mixing at Rio Olympics

The 2016 Rio Olympics start this week in Brazil and security will not be the only part of the Games in secrecy. The Rio Olympic Committee announced that it would be tracking suspicious betting patterns taking place during the competition.

The International Olympic Committee or IOC announced it is partnering with Genius Sports to track any irregular betting patterns on sports played during the Games.

Heading into these Olympic Games there has been plenty of controversy concerning the doping program in Russia and due to that, 37 athletes from Russia have been barred from competition including professional tennis star Maria Sharapova.

The athletes are across a number of sports but the government of Russia continues lobbying to have them included.

With the doping scandal and the inability of Brazil to fully prepare for the Olympic Games as the backdrop, it is going to be an interesting few weeks. The Zika virus is also on the minds of many arriving at the Games.

Because of sufficient controversy, leading up to the Games the IOC does not want problems with any possible betting scandals including having an event fixed.

That is why with the help of Genius the events will be tracked for any irregular betting trends or patterns that could indicate an event has been fixed or compromised.

The tracking of games played in high profile professional and amateur leagues has become very common as pro and amateur organizations attempt to rid the competitions of any corruption or just the appearance of its, from their leagues.

Genius has a number of alliances with different sports leagues including the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, the FIBA and others.

Betting on the upcoming Rio Olympics is expected to have an overall handle of $1 billion, which includes both wagering that is legal and illegal.