An ABC Four Corners investigation revealed that more than 350 professional tennis players, including 10 who played in this year's Australian Open, "have been identified in an international bookmaker's blacklist," according to Timna Jacks of THE AGE.
Some of the blacklisted players "were deemed too risky for the European bookmaker to take bets on, while others were marked to be closely watched." The ABC reported that two of the players on the list "are low-ranked Australians."
A separate blacklist "maintained by bookmakers also reveals more than 40 suspicious matched occurred over a three-month period last year -- an average of more than three times a week." At least four of the players "identified in these matches were previously been reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit, while all four have also competed in the Australian Open." The problem of match-fixing "was flagged back in 2005 and 2008, as two separate reviews identified more than 80 matches with suspicious betting patterns."
Sports Integrity Investigator Ben Gunn, who co-authored the '08 review, said that "investigators believed the evidence was strong enough to take action against some of the players, but none of those players were prosecuted."
He also said that "his recommendation to establish an eight or nine-person integrity regime to investigate corruption was ignored, with just one or two people put on the case" (THE AGE, 2/1).
