“The Internet has allowed the operators of online gambling platforms to reach larger audiences in locations where gambling is considered illegal,” the report notes. Those internet connections also make it possible for punters to log on and place a bet with an online sportsbook that may be operating outside the law of the country where the bettor lives. One factor is increased internet use over the past 20 years, which has made watching and wagering on sporting events easier for many people. At any rate, there are a few reasons for the boom in illicit wagering. The report says that available evidence suggests illegal betting is a particular problem in Asia, but that it may be on the rise in Africa and South America too. “Illegal betting takes place in both grey and black markets and the licencing framework for grey-market operators is often opaque, especially in the context of online betting platforms and jurisdictions offering bets on events taking place in other jurisdictions.” Web trafficking “Illegal betting is a major driver of corruption in sport and has a direct relationship with the manipulation of sports competitions,” the UNODC study says. Some of that wagering could be undermining the integrity of sporting events as well. The eye-popping volume of bets being made via illegal and unregulated markets is “such that it is highly attractive to transnational organized crime groups” as a way of investing and laundering dirty money, the report says. Meanwhile, the size of the legal sports betting market in 2020 was calculated to be around $40 billion.

Just how much wagering is done on illicit betting markets has been pegged somewhere in the ballpark of between $340 billion and $1.7 trillion annually, the review says.

There is a staggering amount of illegal sports betting estimated to be happening every year that can attract organized crime and that can be connected to match-fixing, according to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

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