ZURICH — An agency created to monitor suspicious gambling patterns and possible match-fixing in world football said Monday it has signed its first deal to work with a national association.

Lithuanian football officials have asked Early Warning System for its expert help and information from a network of 400 betting operators worldwide to track betting patterns when the national league kicks off play next month.

"In Lithuania they think there can be a danger in their own league and wanted to know more about sports betting," said Wolfgang Feldner, head of strategy at the Zurich-based EWS.

"Maybe they have had some rumors in the country but there was never any evidence," he said. "A lot of associations don't know how to handle sports betting. In Lithuania they asked us for help and we've given them support coaching people."

Legal online betting worldwide was estimated to be worth $20 billion (€14.7 billion) last year, with much more money staked with illegal bookmakers.

Matches played in Eastern Europe, which attract little publicity, have long been suspected as a likely target for betting coups by fixing results.

Online gambling and new types of wagers on betting exchanges have also made the industry faster and more difficult to monitor.

Between 50 and 200 operators offer wagers each week on results from the eight-team "A'' League in Lithuania, whose season is scheduled to start April 5 and run through November.

Feldner said matches in Lithuania and the Scandinavian countries are more popular with gamblers in the summer when the high-profile European leagues take a break from play.

EWS was created with the help of FIFA in 2007 to monitor betting patterns in qualifying matches for the World Cup. It was also asked by the International Olympic Committee to track betting on events at last year's Beijing Games.

Feldner said no evidence of suspicious bets and possible match-fixing has yet been identified in the World Cup. However, Feldner said the matches most vulnerable to corruption are played from August onward, when teams eliminated from contention will play opponents who need points to reach the final tournament in South Africa.

"We are very careful when the qualification goes on," Feldner said.