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Sportradar helps the sport industry tackle social media abuse - 17th August 2020

Sportradar Integrity Services, the world’s leading supplier of sports integrity solutions, has launched an industry-first solution to support sports organisations in safeguarding professional athletes from social media abuse.

Sportradar’s Intelligence & Investigation Services team, a world leader in providing intelligence and investigation solutions to sporting federations, law enforcement, government agencies, clubs and anti-doping organisations, has drawn upon advanced techniques, technology and 20 years of experience servicing the sports industry to create a groundbreaking new service that both addresses and protects professional athletes from the growing problem of online abuse.

Available to all sports federations, leagues and governing bodies, the service is designed to protect the mental health and wellbeing of professional athletes by keeping them free from harm online and providing peace of mind by discouraging future trolling and abuse through successful investigation, proactive intervention and disruption.

The service identifies the individuals behind anonymous ‘troll’ or ‘burner’ accounts used to direct abuse towards athletes. As well as providing a high-level location of the ‘troll’, Sportradar’s team of experts builds a picture of how that individual conducts online abuse. The findings of the investigation are then shared with its partners and further support is provided in pursuing an appropriate course of action, including the removal of abusive accounts from social media platforms and working with law enforcement to bring legal proceedings.

The product was successfully trialled earlier in the summer at the Exo-Tennis Series across Germany and the US. Participating players from the ATP and WTA Tours including Germany’s Dustin Brown and the US pair of Taylor Townsend and Sachia Vickery shared abusive messages they had received on social media. Following in-depth investigation, Sportradar then provided the event organisers with details of the problem accounts and a set of recommendations on the best course of action to pursue in order to prevent future trolling and abuse.

Commenting on the initiative, Andreas Krannich, managing director integrity services at Sportradar, said: “Maintaining the integrity of sport and ensuring that it’s safe, fair and enjoyable for all, has long been our priority. Now, with this new service, we’ve strengthened our position in this space by safeguarding the athletes who compete in it and protecting them from online harm and social media abuse.

“We are providing a tangible output that our partners can share with their athletes and we’re providing support to those partners in pursuing an appropriate course of action. The service we now have in place can act as a deterrent to future online abuse and create real change, particularly when people see the impact it has.

“We believe this safeguarding solution can have a similar positive impact on sport as our Fraud Detection System has had on match fixing, where we’ve reported more than 5,000 suspicious matches across global sport in 11 years.

Sportradar’s Intelligence & Investigation Services team assists more than 80 partners, including federations, clubs, National Anti-Doping Organisations and law enforcement, identifying and investigating integrity threats to countries, sports and businesses, as well as providing a robust due diligence product to counter any real or perceived threats.