Secret Files Expose Evidence Of Match Fixing In Tennis

[soxhop411]

Widespread suspected match-fixing exists at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, according to secret files obtained by the BBC and online BuzzFeed News.

Over the last decade, 16 players ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), which was set up to police the sport, over suspicions they have thrown matches, the news organizations said.

All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing. Eight of the players are due to play in the Australian Open which starts on Monday, they added.

The BBC and BuzzFeed News said they had not named the players because without access to their phone, bank and computer records it was not possible to determine whether they took part in match-fixing.

The TIU did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

The BBC and BuzzFeed News quoted Nigel Willerton, director of the TIU, as saying: “All credible information received by the TIU is analyzed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators.”

The news organizations said they had obtained a cache of documents that included the findings of an investigation set up in 2007 by the organizing body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

The documents show the inquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on games which investigators thought to be fixed. Three of these games were at Wimbledon.

In a confidential report for tennis authorities in 2008, the inquiry team said 28 players involved in those games should be investigated but the findings were never followed up, the news organizations said.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/tennis-investigation-reveals-widespread-suspected-match-fixing-report/

 

[luckiestman]

I think HBOs real sports covered this years ago. I didn't know they were messing around in the big tournaments though

 

[wiffleballhero]

Tennis had it coming. The prize money structure is not working given the cost of travel and training. Anyone out of the top 75 is pulling in too little after expenses (because it cost a lot of money to travel all over the fucking world with an entourage going to all of the most expensive cities) to not be vulnerable to this.

 

[DJnVa]

Isn't more accurate to say the secret files expose a high-level suspicion of match fixing, not evidence, since the blurb quoted actually says they can't really prove it without access to phone, bank, and computer records and that there was suspicious activity on certain matches "thought to be fixed"?

 

[mauidano]

Other than the two guys mentioned...put up or shut with names and facts.

 

[The Price Is Wrong]

Isn't more accurate to say the secret files expose a high-level suspicion of match fixing, not evidence, since the blurb quoted actually says they can't really prove it without access to phone, bank, and computer records and that there was suspicious activity on certain matches "thought to be fixed"?

Depends on your definition of suspicion and proof. What I've heard that they have wouldn't convict anyone in a court of law, but could easily give the ITF enough grounds to suspend certain players indefinitely until and unless they receive satisfactory explanations. Here's what I read:

The investigation was based on a cache of leaked documents from the 2008 probe -- the so-called Fixing Files -- and current analysis of betting activity on 26,000 matches, plus interviews with gambling and match-fixing experts, tennis officials and players.

"They could have got rid of a network of players that would have almost completely cleared the sport up," Mark Philips, one of the investigators, told Buzzfeed and the BBC. "We gave them everything tied up with a nice, pink bow on top, and they took no action at all."

In addition to the leaked files from the 2008 probe, BuzzFeed used an algorithm to analyze gambling on tennis matches over the past seven years. That analysis identified 15 players who regularly attracted lopsided betting that shifted the odds, which is considered a warning of possible match fixing. Four of those players lost almost all of the matches that were flagged. Given the original odds on those matches, the chance the players would play so poorly was less than one in 1,000.

The 2008 match between Davydenko and Arguello also had Arguello exchanging 82 text messages with the head of an Italian gambling syndicate. If you have suspicious betting patterns matched against suspicious loss patterns, and suspicious communications on top of that, I think a sport has enough to suspend and possibly ban. Collectively, that ought to reverse the burden of proof for a player.

The data analysis isn't some mumbo-jumbo, either - forensic techniques that depend on things like Benford's Law are considered common in court cases on accounting fraud, as well as election fraud and scientific fraud. When Steven Levitt discovered widespread match fixing in sumo wrestling (published in Freakonomics), it was mostly through identification of statistical anomalies. Basically, I don't think what Buzzfeed has uncovered is mere suspicion - I think it's evidence. And it may suffice to be proof sufficient for bans.

 

[Schnerres]

One of the bigger names who was always involved in such reports and had to pay several penalties is former Top5 player Nikolai Dawydenko. He lost several matches to lower ranked (75 to 100) players while already leading and then pulling out with injuries, after there were huge bets placed on the outsiders right before the matches. He got penalties from the refs to keep playing and avoid unforced errors. His matches were pulled from betting stations due to those actions. But after a year or so, he was cleared from any match fixing accusation. He still looks very suspicuous, but there probably was no proof.
He´s retired and probably has a betting bureau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Davydenko#Controversies
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/51670382/as-wimbledon-begins-does-tennis-have-a-gambling-problem

The above isn't news to tennis authorities. In 2007, Betfair staffers noticed an unusually large amount of money being bet on a match in Poland between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello -- about $7 million, 10 times the typical amount for a contest of that caliber. Even stranger: Most of the money was riding on Arguello, a no-name ranked around 70 spots below then No. 4-ranked Davydenko. And the same money was coming from a handful of bettors.

Betfair smelled trouble. After Davydenko withdrew with a foot injury while trailing in the third set, the bookmaker took the unprecedented step of voiding all bets on the match. Meanwhile, the men's tour launched a year-long investigation. Both players ultimately were cleared of any wrongdoing. But the damage was done.

 

[DJnVa]

Any match where a player withdraws due to injury should be an automatic push. If someone player wants to throw a match, let's watch those unforced errors pile up.

 

[The Price Is Wrong]

Totally agree. Force them to make a total farce of it. "what is this strange object you call a racquet?"

edit: I'd always suspected some shenanigans here...