Tennis Integrity Unit Dir Nigel Willerton revealed that "there has been a huge increase in reports of suspicious betting patterns in the sport," according to Barry Flatman of the LONDON TIMES. Willerton made the revelation at an appearance before the House of Commons’ culture, media and sport select committee as "tennis powerbrokers were accused of grossly underfunding the battle against corruption." Willerton "was summoned" with ATP President & Exec Chair Chris Kermode and ATP Chief Legal & Media Officer Mark Young, "to respond to corruption allegations." Willerton said that his unit had received 246 alerts of "suspicious betting patterns" surrounding matches in '15, up from 91 in '14. In '12, the number was just 14, rising to 46 in '13. Conservative MP Damian Collins called the difference between the money that the ITF receives and how much it gives to the TIU "an amazing disparity." The integrity unit has been run on a budget of $2M a year, with the governing body giving $200,000 (LONDON TIMES, 2/25). In London, Simon Briggs wrote the TIU was decried as "a fig-leaf" by Collins. In a "scathing assessment" of tennis's ability to defend itself against corruption, Collins said, "I feel sorry for Mr. Willerton. He's not quite a lone ranger but it's a very small team on a small budget." Collins also suggested that the problem of match-fixing is "rife," although Kermode, who gave evidence to at Wednesday's hearing, responded that "a total of 246 suspicious betting alerts last year represented only" 0.2% of professional tennis matches. Despite a "slightly scattergun approach," the select committee "turned up some interesting details," including the fact that Pinnacle Sports -- the bookmaker that takes the largest volume of bets on Futures matches, and is based in Curacao -- is the only such company which has "refused to sign a memorandum of understanding with the TIU." Asked to pinpoint the geographical location of the suspect matches, Willerton said, "The Argentinas and the Chiles, South America, and of course Russia is where we do see several alerts. In some cultures, corruption is the way they do their business" (TELEGRAPH, 2/24).
