Another sports betting scandal, this time in tennis

[The Buzz]

Not much new information, but some good quotes on this whole scandal in a recent story on bloomberg.com ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...7qrR4&refer=us

Patrick McEnroe, the U.S. Davis Cup captain, said today that the match-fixing allegations ``are more a threat than a problem'' and that the sport's leaders were correct to investigate. He also said he wouldn't be surprised if matches at ``a lower level, where the winnings are lower,'' might have been fixed.

``It's a relatively easy game to manipulate, because there are only two players and if one decides to manipulate the outcome there's not much that can be done,'' McEnroe said in an interview.

[The Buzz]

This year's Australian Open will have an anti-corruption unit to battle match fixing.

Australian Open organizers established an anti-corruption commission and appointed an investigator to combat gambling and potential match-fixing at the season-opening Grand Slam tennis tournament.

Tennis Australia said today it would also set up a telephone hotline to report alleged corruption, ban the unauthorized use of laptop computers courtside and increase restrictions on access to players.

"We don't believe our sport has a corruption problem but we do recognize that a threat to the integrity of tennis exists,'' Tennis Australia Chief Executive Officer Steve Wood said in an e-mailed statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=australia

[The Buzz]

Originally Posted by The Buzz

This year's Australian Open will have an anti-corruption unit to battle match fixing.

And they've gone to pretty good lengths to put this together ... read about it, and player reaction, here in the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/sp.../15tennis.html

[Fortune Palace]

If you read the Sports Arb betting forums, tennis is notorious as one of the most corrupt sports there is. And because different bookmakers have different criteria for how and when to pay out when a player retires, there are more arbs to be found.

Not that I understand how it works! But I was a little shocked to see how rife people consider cheating in tennis to be.

But how do you police it? How does a player prove he or she is in too much pain to continue?

Nearly impossible, I reckon...

[The Buzz]

An independent review is taking a close look at 45 matches to see if the matches may have been fixed.

Saying tennis is "potentially at a crossroads," an independent review panel found 45 matches that merit further investigation because of irregular betting patterns and offered a host of recommendations to the sport's leaders for combatting corruption.

The panel's 66-page report, prompted in part by suspicions surrounding a match last year involving fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko, was released Monday by the International Tennis Federation, the ATP, the WTA Tour and the four Grand Slams.

The 45 unidentified matches, played in the last five years, were among 73 examined by the panel, which warned of "inside information."

"We do not doubt that criminal elements may be involved in seeking to subvert or corrupt some players or players' support staff; that may even involve organized criminal gangs, but to elevate that suspicion to a claim of 'Mafia' involvement is, in our view, a distortion of the facts and is positively damaging to the sport," the report said.

Meanwhile, Davydenko and his agent are getting tired of hearing all the accusations.

"The name 'Davydenko' is being abused," his manager, Ronnie Leitgeb, said Monday from Poertschach, Austria, where the Russian is playing. "If his name keeps coming up in rumors and nothing has been proven in the upcoming two or three months, we'll consider taking legal action."

Besides noting the 45 matches to be investigated further, the review panel made 15 recommendations that the sport's four governing bodies accepted — including "any player caught cheating should be punished by a lengthy suspension for a first offense and, if the circumstances merit it, a life ban." They also agreed to have a uniform anti-corruption program and an integrity unit.

The report also examines the practice of "tanking," which it defines as "a player not giving 'best efforts' in a match." While no specific recommendations were made, the report did "urge officials to be alert to such activity and to deal with it as a break of the rules whenever such behavior can be proved."

Another of the recommendations allows only players and essential tournament personnel to have access to the locker rooms at tournaments. The report said many believe that insider knowledge, such as a player's injury or illness that is not widely known, gets passed on to bettors.

Full story here ... http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...s-Gambling.php

[The Buzz]

After a year-long investigation, the ATP has said it can find on evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Nikolay Davydenko.

The ATP said it found no evidence of wrongdoing by Davydenko or his opponent, Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina, or anyone else associated with their match in Sopot, Poland, on Aug. 2, 2007.


"The ATP has now exhausted all avenues of inquiry open to it and the investigation is now concluded," the ATP said in a statement.


"This is a big relief for Nikolay," Davydenko's agent Ronnie Leitgeb told ESPN on Friday. "It was a nightmare for him."


Leitgeb said he gave Davydenko the news Friday and Davydenko said "all the world can now see I did nothing wrong."

Full story here ... http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/ten...ory?id=3583444