In the UK, the House of Lords has heard testimony in the past few weeks of how match-fixing is increasing around the world. Major scandals have swept the NBA, MLB, and professional soccer, but even sports such as darts and chess are being targeted.
Leagues have grappled with how to handle the fallout. Some have called for bans on certain bet types, such as props or microbets, that focus on events in matches under the control of a single player, such as a yellow card in soccer or the next pitch in baseball.
The UK is considering ratifying the Macolin Convention, the only international treaty focused on addressing sports corruption. A global problem needs global solutions, speakers told the panel.
One of those speakers was Moses Swaibu, CEO of GameChanger360.
“I believe in ratifying, which means better cross-country borders, better investigations, better education, better structures around tech, and, more importantly, the UK being almost a gold standard,” Swaibu told CasinoBeats over a video call on Thursday.
‘Path of Redemption for Society’
Additionally, organizations must work from the bottom up, teaching young athletes the importance of sporting integrity and giving them the tools to report corruption. That is where GameChanger comes in. Swaibu has been developing the platform, which he says is a “path of redemption for society.”
It is also part of his own journey of redemption. We spoke with him on the same day the paperback version of his book, Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer, was released.
The book tells the story of how Swaibu became embroiled in the criminal underworld of match-fixing in his time as a professional soccer player in England. Swaibu also told the fascinating story on an award-winning BBC podcast.
His arrest led to a turning point where he realized he had two roads: “continue doing what I was doing and become who I was going to become, or flip it around and get back to who I actually am, which is Moses Swaibu.”
“I was always going to be someone who was successful and someone who aspired to do well, simply because of my DNA and where I’m coming from. You don’t go and win the Young Player of the Year award at Crystal Palace with no football experience; you need the right support, family, networks, people at that club, managers, and mentors,” Swaibu said. “If that was instilled in me, I can 100% do that for other people.”
After years of work since his release from prison in 2014, GameChanger is ready to provide that support to others.
Educating an Industry
Swaibu has been an advisor to sporting governing bodies and governments and has given talks around the world on sporting integrity. He helped build the Premier League’s integrity framework, but with GameChanger, he hopes to expand much further.
“I think for me, probably the first idea I really had of the company, is how do you affect change? How can we reach the masses?”
The primary way the company aims to do that is through technology.
“Everyone has tablets, smartphones, social media, so we are building structures and robust digitalized versions of how they learn.”
He credits Dr. Andy Harvey, the company’s head of research, for adding decades’ worth of information and evidence to Swaibu’s lived experience. Harvey also helped him understand how the platform can not only educate individual athletes but also an entire industry.
“That roadmap and drive into establishing the research behind that is probably what’s taken so long. I’m very anal when it comes to trying to get the best fit for what we have because once we go live, it’s really gonna be something that hasn’t really been seen in the market from its design, its use, the interactions it has, the capabilities,” Swaibu says with enthusiasm.
Four Core Products Around Intelligence Model
GameChanger has created four core products around an intelligence model.
“One’s 360 education, that’s self-explanatory,” Swaibu explains. “Another one’s intelligence, which is the hub and layer. Another one’s a reporting mechanism for all of the users, and more importantly, the dashboards on the platform allow enterprise-grade level understanding to really hone in on what that security looks like.”
The platform can be adapted to the organization’s needs, Swaibu adds. “We have two ends. We can approach FIFA, as we’ve done, or we can approach the federation directly, as we’ve done, and build out two different variations for different use cases. A federation may say, ‘Hey, we only want education,’ while FIFA may say, ‘We want the whole suite of all four products.’ So, it’s designed for the capabilities and needs as to what’s currently happening and what’s going to happen as well.”
In February 2024, FIFA launched a major push in its integrity division, aiming to educate integrity officers in all 211 member associations. It hosted the first-ever FIFA Integrity Summit in Singapore in April that year and works to support efforts to tackle corruption in each country.
With FIFA’s financial backing and support, individual federations are launching their own initiatives.
Swaibu could not say where GameChanger is planning to roll out, but indicated that the company is in talks with “a major federation.”
“I’m a big believer in taking one step at a time,” he said. “We’re a relatively small team as well, so I don’t want to scale and grow too quickly. I want to crawl before I can run, which means we want to establish a relationship with this federation at the highest standards and levels, as a gold standard.”
ChatGPT for Match-Fixing
Athletes are often victims, Karen Moorhouse, CEO of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), told the House of Lords committee a week after Swaibu was on the panel.
“They have been corrupted by someone who’s preyed on their vulnerability to get them to corrupt something in a sports event,” Moorhouse said.
One of GameChanger’s key products is an educational platform that helps players understand how criminal groups operate and empowers them to make the right decisions. Learning modules are supplemented by the first large language model dedicated to anti-match-fixing from the players’ perspective.
“When we’re talking about a large language model, it’s speaking the language of the athletes, not just footballers. You could be at the IOC, you could be playing cricket, but depending on where you’ve grown up, where you’re coming from, what country you’re in, there’s a colloquial language,” Swaibu says.
“The tool will adapt to their needs because it’s all based on the user’s experience. And in that user experience, you may or may not have been approached, but are you learning and understanding what to do?”
Swaibu said he was approached by three different criminal organizations during his career, from different corners of the world and operating at different scales.
The tools GameChanger is developing will be customized to the environment and will learn as players interact with them.
“We can take the manual from different leagues or organizations, enhance that with what we have, combine that with our own AI tools, and the outputs are very much like ChatGPT but for match-fixing and what subjects they’re going to learn.”
Providing Anonymous Channels to Report Corruption
Scandals in college sports in the US have shown that young athletes are particularly susceptible to the approaches of criminal groups. When players are approached, the platform will provide them with the tools to handle the situation.
“For example, a defender who hears about match-fixing would interact with the platform and the module to help him understand that the platform also knows what he or she may be going through, which would create questions and answers for outputs. It’s very simple: yes or no, did this happen? But the more you interact, and the more we ask questions, the more it will build tools for risk assessments and reports.”
It also gives players an anonymous way to report incidents that they may feel uncomfortable discussing openly with those around them.
“So if that person wants to come forward but doesn’t know where to go or doesn’t want to go to their agent or the club, the platform has tools they can use to report anonymously,” Swaibu adds.
He added, “We can share that with the confidence of the player or the club through the relevant people within the organization or the federation, for them to have a better output for investigations. These investigations mean it’s come directly from player to GameChanger, and from GameChanger directly into a report that gives a risk assessment and score for each individual, no matter what first team or what academy they’re playing in.”
Upskilling Educators & Managers
In addition to providing tools for players and athletes, the platform aims to enhance the organization’s understanding of the risks to sporting integrity.
“We’re ahead of the technology in terms of the athletes and players, but we’re also ahead of the technology because those who manage the players and deliver the education also need upskilling,” Swaibu explains.
“This is where the research and the professionalism from Andy Harvey and his background—and the white papers that he’s written—all cater towards a different targeted audience, depending on your level of intelligence and experience. So there’s different criteria for that learning style.
“At times, it’s quite frustrating because I’m like, ‘I know what to do. I worked for these people. You’re trying to chase them, and I’m giving you the tools to help you understand how they think.’ And it hasn’t changed; the only thing that’s changed is technology.”
Remaining Neutral to Maintain Integrity
That said, Swaibu praised the House of Lords committee and organizations such as FIFA for their efforts to tackle corruption.
FIFA has been criticized over prioritizing revenue streams at the ongoing World Cup, from its dynamic pricing ticket system to its partnerships with companies like ADIPredictStreet. President Gianni Infantino also appeared to cave to Donald Trump’s demands to rescind a red card for Folarin Balogun during the tournament, which many said sets a dangerous precedent.
“I’d always take the viewpoint of remaining quite neutral with subjects like this. Unless there’s a report or an inquiry, we’re never really gonna know the facts or the inside outs; to me, it’s just hearsay,” Swaibu says.
“If you go back into FIFA’s history, I know 100% that they’re trying their hardest to make a change,” he adds. “There are great people there. What may be seen as a scandal does not eradicate the people behind the scenes who are putting integrity at the forefront and trying to really build those structures.”
GameChanger strives to remain neutral. Swaibu says, “We have no conflicts with the betting and data industry simply because of how we’re entering the market and where we sit in our independence.”
Swaibu is open to working with data companies such as Sportradar and Genius Sports, as well as betting companies, to enhance their efforts to tackle corruption.
“In the event a data company like a Sportradar or a Genius engages with GameChanger, we’re adding an extra layer to what they don’t have,” he stated.
Sportradar, which also says it aims to educate and monitor sports corruption, has reported that match-fixing is decreasing, but the organization has been accused of facilitating illegal gambling. The company insists it works with only regulated operators.
“We’re very strategic with our partnerships,” Swaibu says. “I can say we’re looking at quite a big company at the moment that provides gambling harm and risk assessment; they’re one of the big players. We have the technology and the tools, and they have the size, a strong market share, and exposure to other sports as well.”
Bigger Than Sport
“It isn’t just about sport; it’s way bigger than sport,” Swaibu says. “This is us saving humanity. There’s a real need and a desire from where I’ve come from, where people have lost their lives for less. I live in the heart of London, and I’ve grown up around crime, corruption, violence, and abuse in ways, as I’ve explained in my book, that allowed me to stand on my two feet as a leader, as an inspiration—not only for redemption but for somebody in the community.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re Black, White, or Asian; I represent people and humans, girls, boys, and the ability to do better and improve all of the tools you learn in sport.”
In the future, GameChanger may move into other areas to tackle corruption.
“We’re a commercial technology company driven by sporting integrity, but that doesn’t mean when we scale, we won’t be going into other areas,” Swaibu says. “You look at fraud, anti-money laundering, the banking system—these are all traps where highly organized criminals penetrate globalized systems.”
But as he stated, one step at a time.
