Calvin Ridley is one of the young stars of the NFL but on March 7 his career suffered a serious setback. The NFL announced that it was suspending Ridley, 27, for at least a year for betting on American football games over a five-day period in November last year, including matches involving his team, the Atlanta Falcons.
Ridley was taking a break from the sport at the time after saying that he needed time “to focus on my mental wellbeing”.
The NFL’s investigation found no evidence of match fixing or inside information being used. However Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, said Ridley had “put the integrity of the game at risk”.
Ridley’s suspension has divided opinion in the US. Some think it is ridiculously harsh given the smaller bans handed out to players accused of domestic violence and the NFL’s enthusiastic embrace of gambling firms (and their sponsorship money) since betting rules were eased. Others think the punishment is fair given the damage that match-fixing can do to sport.
At the centre of it all is a British company. Genius Sports is one of the UK-based businesses which took advantage of the Spac boom in the US last year to list. It has endured a difficult start to life as a public company, with its shares falling by 74 per cent and the company posting a net loss of $593 million for 2021 on the back of investment in the business and the cost of the listing.
Advertisement
However, Genius, which is based in London and can trace its origins back to the founding of BetGenius in 2001 by Mark Locke, the company’s chief executive, is one of a collection of companies looking to cash in on the betting boom in the US. Its revenues rose by 76 per cent in 2021 and it has a market value of $1.1 billion.
Unlike Entain, Flutter and William Hill, which offer Americans the platform to actually place their bet, Genius is a middleman which provides the data and back office services that allow the US sports and bookies to offer odds.
One of the services offered by Genius is “integrity services”. This is how Ridley was caught by the NFL.
Integrity services helps sport governing bodies manage the risks of gambling. It offers educational workshops for players and officials, monitors suspicious activity and liaises with law enforcement if improper or illegal bets are found. Genius sees integrity services as insurance cover that helps American sports win approval from states to legalise gambling.
Genius has integrity contracts with more than 150 sports and federations, including the NFL. It monitors activity in two ways. First, an algorithm tracks how betting patterns and odds should move. “We are looking for variances or jumps in odds,” says Simon Martyn, the director of integrity. “When it can’t be explained, that is when it goes to the next level.”
Advertisement
The second way is through information sharing and the monitoring of insiders, such as Ridley. “As and when it is appropriate there is information sharing,” Martyn says. This could include a bookie sharing the details of an account that made a suspicious bet or Genius liaising with Interpol. Martyn says that it would be “difficult” to identify bets made by insiders through friends and relatives or pseudonyms.
Genius won’t comment on the Ridley case because of confidentiality, but according to reports in the US it was alerted to the issue by Hard Rock after bets were placed in Florida through its app. These bets were traced to Ridley.
The case shows how a British company has effectively become a policeman for sports betting in the US and how far the tentacles of our gambling industry have spread across the Atlantic. For many, this will be uncomfortable. For Genius and other companies, it promises to be extremely lucrative.
