Tennis integrity investigators have had funding of just $14M in seven years to "expose match fixers while they have failed to prosecute a case against any of the sport’s bigger names suspected of corruption," according to Paul Malone of the Brisbane COURIER-MAIL. According to the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the main men’s tour, $14M since '08 "has been invested by the sport to prevent match fixing and involvement by players and other accredited individuals to betting." Former ATP anti-corruption officer Richard Ings questioned whether the "level of funding by the ATP and other tennis bodies for the Tennis Integrity Unit is sufficient." The efficiency of the TIU "is in the spotlight because of reports that eight unnamed players, including at least one Grand Slam winner, at the Australian Open have been repeatedly brought to the attention of the TIU over the past decade over match-fixing concerns." Ings said, "Capability (of the TIU in exposing match fixing) is what we don't know -- $14 million since 2008 is not a lot of cash when billions (are) gambled on tennis." ATP CEO Chris Kermode on Monday said that "allegations and sustainable evidence were two different matters." Kermode said, "In its investigations, the Tennis Integrity Unit has to find evidence, as opposed to information, suspicion or hearsay. This is the key here -- it requires evidence." Ings, an Australian, was exec VP, rules and competition, of the ATP from '01-05, "where he was responsible for developing and enforcing anti-doping and anti-corruption programs for men's tennis." Ings: "Without a whistle blower or cooperation from bookmakers or without telephone records that can be demanded from players it (corruption) is very difficult to prove" (COURIER-MAIL, 1/19). In London, Ben Rumsby reported more than three times as many matches "may have been fixed in tennis last year than in every other sport put together, according to shocking statistics that lay bare the scale of suspicious betting at tournaments." The All England Club was moved to contact its members on Monday "in an attempt to reassure them after the sport’s leaders strenuously denied suppressing evidence of corruption supplied to them by independent investigators and betting watchdogs." Those watchdogs have recorded an "exponential growth in suspicious activity around tennis in recent years, despite the game accounting for only a fraction of the sports-betting market." A trio of reports by the European Sports Security Association shows that "during the first three quarters of last year, it raised 49 suspicious-activity alerts about tennis with the authorities." ESSA -- the 18 members of which include William Hill, Ladbrokes, Sky Bet and bet365 -- "raised just 16 such alerts across all other sports in the same period." The fourth-quarter figures are due to be released soon, and "will show a similar pattern, which would take close to 70 the number of suspicious alerts in tennis last year." To put those figures into context, football "was responsible for the next highest number of alerts during the first three quarters of last year, with 11." Industry insiders on Monday said that "while they had no reason to doubt the integrity of the TIU, they felt it had been too timid in pursuing cases in which guilt might be difficult to prove." One compared tennis unfavorably to snooker, "which was applauded for what was perceived to be a more risk-taking approach to charging players with corruption, with its successful prosecution of Stephen Lee cited as one example" (TELEGRAPH, 1/18).
NEW TECH: In London, Rob Minto wrote "another day, another sport in the dock." Devastating allegations "have over the past 12 months been leveled against first football and then athletics." Now "it is the turn of tennis." While it is "tempting to see the latest allegations of match-fixing in tennis as part of a continuum of sport corruption, the news that players may have thrown parts or all of a match for money is very different to the scandals that rocked football and athletics in 2015." The latest tennis allegations "have more in common with the scandal that hit cricket." In '11, several Pakistani test cricketers were "found guilty of bowling no-balls to order, and were jailed." The overall outcome of the match "was not necessarily compromised." Tennis has the same problem: "the overall match outcome may or may not" be what is being fixed. Throwing parts of a match to order "only requires one player to be in on the scam, although it may well involve both." And "that is where technology comes in." Tennis match-fixing "is in essence a battle of new technologies, which plays out online as well as on court." First, "there is the betting." Bookmakers and betting exchanges allow bets on all sorts of elements of a tennis match: "whether a player will win a set or not, total games, overall match odds." The "amount you can bet has increased, as have the number of matches available." Never mind the Australian Open that got under way on Monday morning: "you can also place a bet today on who will win matches in the Manila Challenger event, several levels down from the Grand Slam event in Melbourne." The "incentive is clear." Yet "while technology has created a proliferation of betting options, it also helps the sleuths" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 1/18).
PLAYERS' REACTIONS: REUTERS' Nick Mulvenney reported World No. 2 Andy Murray said that young tennis players "need to be educated about the implications of match-fixing and the sport needs to be more proactive in talking about the issue." Speaking after he "eased into the second round" at Melbourne Park, Murray said that Novak Djokovic's revelation that he had been offered $200,000 to throw a match in the early years of his career "highlighted the temptation facing young players." Murray said, "I think when people come with those sums of money when you're that age I think sometimes people can make mistakes. I do think it's important that from a younger age players are better educated and are made more aware of what they should do in those situations and how a decision like that can affect your career, can affect the whole sport. I think across all sports, I don't think that that's done particularly well. You know, I think you should be learning about those things from 15, 16, 17 years old and being warned about it." Australian teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis told local radio in Melbourne on Tuesday that "he had been approached on social media about throwing matches." The 19-year-old said, "You read some stuff on your Facebook page, just these randoms from nowhere saying, 'I'll pay you this much to tank the game.' You don't really take it seriously" (REUTERS, 1/19).
CANNOT BE TRUSTED: In London, Matt Dickinson wrote this scandal shows yet again that governing bodies cannot "be trusted to police their sports." Yes, "they said, bad stuff might be going on at the bottom of the game among players you have barely heard of in places you have never been (most of it some years ago), but do not worry, the show goes on at the main event in Melbourne." We have learned "also that governing bodies -- from the IOC to FIFA, the UCI to the IAAF and, yes, the tennis authorities too -- cannot be trusted to police their own sports when they are so conflicted by their role as promoters." Their mantra is to sell "the product" to the world, "harnessing ever-growing sponsorship and broadcast deals." The tennis authorities "were quick to insist that they took their responsibilities seriously but added that it is hard to turn rumour, suspicion or, sometimes, even compelling evidence into a conviction, thereby suggesting that no one really knows the scale of the problem." This journalism "was valid in holding the issue up to the light" (LONDON TIMES, 1/19).
PLAYER TESTIMONY: Former Tennis professional Arvind Parmar for the LONDON TIMES wrote "I was playing at the Challenger tournament in the Dutch city of Groeningen in 2004 when I was approached by a random guy as I was coming off the practice courts." He "showed me the money and said that I had to lose in two sets." It "was a large envelope full of euros -- so shocking and blatant." I "remember that he didn’t speak great English, but it was obvious what he was trying to do." He "seemed anxious, nervous, and after a few quick words he began trying to press an envelope stuffed with euros into my hand." It "was a substantial amount of money -- tens of thousands -- way more than I would have earned from winning the tournament and more than most players at that level would make in a year." But "it wasn’t tempting at all." It "was a split-second decision for me to say, 'Absolutely not.'" I "didn’t even consider it, and was in a state of complete shock afterwards." Players "on the Challenger circuit are quite vulnerable and it's easy to see why they're approached, as most of them are doing well to break even financially." Being "presented with cash and no questions asked is a big carrot at that level" (LONDON TIMES, 1/19).
WHAT SPORT TO TRUST?: In London, Neil Lyndon opined that "dull thudding that could be heard all over the country Monday morning was the sound of sports fans' hearts dropping into their boots." You "might have found yourself protesting" aloud: "Dear God, no! Not tennis!" With FIFA "in ruins, world cricket rotten to the stumps, athletics having to tear up its entire record book, cycling disgraced forever, F1 laughably rigged (and if snooker isn't fixed you'd have to wonder why not), the entire spectacle of professional sport increasingly looks like a game for suckers and innocents." I "have always mocked my son's affection for WWE for its transparent and ludicrous fakery; but I'm now beginning to wonder if it might not be the most honest sport a man can watch." Given "what we now know about world football and athletics, how can anybody in future watch an opening ceremony for the Olympics or the World Cup without sniggering out loud?" Professional sport "is now an extension of the gambling industry to the same extent as it depends on television." They "are each mutually inter-reliant." The "dominance of the bookies in advertising on the TV sports channels is now so constant as to be morally asphyxiating." The "gambling industry takes us for helpless, hapless suckers in exactly the same frame of mind as the sports world fleeces us for over-priced tickets and merchandise" (TELEGRAPH, 1/19).
