sportradar
Four years after writing her Ph.D. thesis on gambling regulation in her native Germany, Laila Mintas found herself working within the industry that she studied, hired away from a Berlin law firm to handle legal matters for the department charged with detecting and investigating match-fixing in soccer for FIFA. After two years building a similar operation at CONCACAF, Mintas joined sports data provider Sportradar, where as deputy president she heads the company’s U.S. business, which includes an integrity unit that monitors global betting markets for suspicious activity. With the sports business percolating about anticipated expansion of wagering in some U.S. states, Mintas has been busy counseling clients including the NFL, NBA, NHL and NASCAR on what to expect next.
On the legislative learning curve: You have some people who are deep into it and they understand it and they want to work with it. They’re already thinking about putting a monitoring system into their laws so that they are really taking care of the risk to protect sport. But then there are other people that are newer into that space, who now all of a sudden are going to be responsible, and they were saying — we’re afraid that if betting becomes legalized in the U.S., then more people will come into that space and they’ll go to the colleges and approach the young players.
You know what my answer to that is? As someone who has worked with the leagues in this space for a long time, I say, that’s all going on right now. But if you turn a blind eye to it you don’t see it. If someone really wants to approach a player, they can do it now and put the bet somewhere in Asia — and right now the U.S. has zero visibility on what’s going on there.
On educating players and coaches: That’s what I did a lot in the soccer world: Educating players and also high executives. You had to explain that they’re not allowed to bet on soccer. That’s why FIFA has that rule. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your tournament. No soccer. That’s it. If you want to bet on basketball, go for it. But no soccer. Through working with the leagues you can get the names of everyone who is not allowed to bet. So it really is something you can monitor if the [bookmakers] want to do it or are required to do it.
When we first speak to the leagues, there’s really a lack of knowledge of how the betting market works and how the integrity systems work, and what is really needed. And we see that from many of the states as well. … If the system you set up cannot compete with that big black betting market, people will keep betting with illegal bookmakers instead of coming into the legal market. That’s a real risk that we see.
Laila Mintas
Deputy President, Sportradar
It can happen to anyone: There are case studies from other sports where athletes make a lot of money, but they still get into gambling or they get into other trouble. The match fixers find the weakness of these people and then go and blackmail them or do whatever works to fix a game. That’s why I’m always concerned when I hear, “Oh, they’re making so much money they would never ever get into that.” The likelihood is lower, of course. But there is still a chance that it could happen.
When the fix is in: When I was at CONCACAF they would call me and tell me, “Hey, Laila, this game, we have information from the pre-betting market that they are trying to fix it.” So I would get on a plane, go to the grounds, go to the locker room and make these famous speeches where I would say, “We are watching you. We know there’s something going on. We have an eye on you tonight.” … Trying to prevent it from happening is always better than trying to investigate and sanction these people later.
— Bill King
