An Estonia man was taken into police custody on Friday at the US Open for violating a 20-year ban imposed on him in 2016 for suspected courtsiding.
The unnamed individual was removed from the Arthur Ashe stadium by law enforcement officers. Last year he was detained on the suspicion of passing data from matches to syndicates and betting individuals. A practice better known as courtsiding. It is used to give insider information to gamblers. Allowing them to place bets on live scores before the websites are able to update their information.
“Earlier today an individual from Estonia was arrested for violating a No Trespassing notice issued during the 2016 US Open.” The USTA said in a statement. “At the 2016 US Open the aforementioned individual was given a 20-year No Trespassing notice for taking part in courtsiding activity, making it illegal for him to enter the US Open.”
“Following his arrest, he was taken to the 110th precinct in Queens.”
USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier has confirmed that a total of eight people has been identified as courtsider’s so far in this year’s tournament. The individuals, who have not been named, were found via the Tennis Integrity Unit’s on-site enforcement team.
Last year a total of 20 people were detained for conducting the illegal practice.
Not a new problem
In 2016 two umpires were found guilty of collaborating with gamblers. The ITF announced that Kirill Parfenov from Kazakhstan was banned for life in February 2015 and Croatia’s Denis Pitner was suspended for a year (starting August 2015). Both were accused of deliberately delaying the updating of the match scores to allow time for gamblers to bet on matches.
“Kirill Parfenov of Kazakhstan was decertified for life in February 2015 for contacting another official on Facebook in an attempt to manipulate the scoring of matches.” The joint ITF/TIU statement said.
“Separately, Denis Pitner of Croatia had his certification suspended on 1 August 2015 for 12 months for sending information on the physical well-being of a player to a coach during a tournament and regularly logging on to a betting account from which bets were placed on tennis matches.”
Tennis has been under scrutiny for match-fixing ever since a joint report from Buzzfeed and BBC News alleged widespread corruption in the sport. An allegation that has been played down by the governing bodies of the sport as well as players.
