A new survey from Norway’s Lottery and Foundations Authority suggests suspected efforts to manipulate sporting events are still going largely unreported, even though athletes, coaches and officials are required to report them. The research, carried out in November 2025, gathered responses from people involved in basketball, football, handball and ice hockey to measure awareness of match manipulation, reporting habits and knowledge of integrity rules.
“There have been few match-fixing cases in Norway. The goal of the survey is to increase knowledge about the manipulation of sports competitions,” said Eirik Haugen Tysse, a lawyer with the Norwegian Lottery Authority.
The results show ten respondents said someone had approached them about manipulating a sporting event, while another 27 said they were aware of similar incidents. Even so, only one in five people who encountered or knew about such approaches reported them. Tysse said reporting remains one of the most important tools for preventing match-fixing and stressed that people covered by the regulations are obligated to report suspected attempts.
Reported match-fixing approaches remained steady while awareness of suspected incidents increased in Norway’s 2025 survey. Credit: Norway’s Lottery and Foundations Authority
Knowledge of the rules has improved only slightly since a similar survey in 2023. Participants rated their familiarity with match-manipulation regulations at an average of 2.86 out of five, indicating there is still considerable room for improvement. Tysse said it was encouraging to see some progress but added that organizations responsible for protecting sporting integrity would continue their education efforts.
Norway match-fixing survey finds education and reporting remain the biggest integrity challenges
The survey also found uncertainty about inside information and how it applies to sports betting. Twenty-six respondents said they had been contacted by someone seeking non-public information that could influence betting markets, while many others were unsure whether such an approach had occurred. Nine respondents acknowledged using or sharing inside information, and several others said they did not know whether they had done so.
“This may indicate that some people are uncertain about where the boundary lies,” Tysse said.
The Norwegian findings mirror concerns emerging elsewhere in Europe. In the Netherlands, gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit reported a new pattern during 2025 after identifying four cases in which professional athletes placed bets on competitions connected to their own sporting careers. Officials warned that such behavior creates conflicts of interest and increases the risk that inside knowledge could influence betting activity.
“The SBIU received four reports about players who placed a bet on their own competition,” the regulator said in its translated report.
The Dutch authority said licensed operators cancelled the wagers, restricted or closed the betting accounts and alerted both regulators and sports federations. It also noted that most suspicious alerts still involved unusual betting patterns rather than confirmed manipulation.
Authorities in both countries argue education remains one of the strongest safeguards. Norway’s regulator said the latest survey highlights the need for better understanding of reporting duties and inside-information rules, while Canada’s Canadian Premier League recently completed a second year of anti-match-fixing training with the International Betting Integrity Association and PFA Canada, focusing on rules, responsibility and reporting as sports betting continues to expand.
Featured image: Canva
