The European Sports Security Association (ESSA) has notified ‘relevant bodies’ about 46 suspicious tennis matches during the third quarter of 2017, according to their latest report.
Tennis accounted for roughly 64% of the suspicious betting patterns in sport. More than five times more than any other sports with Football and table tennis each having eight suspicious matches reported. In total 72 alerts was raised.
“A betting pattern is deemed unusual or suspicious when it involves unexpected activity with atypical bet sizes or volumes that continue, even after significant price corrections have been made in order to deter such activity in the market.” The report outlined.
“A betting pattern is only confirmed as suspicious after ESSA has made detailed enquiries with all of its members to eliminate any prospect that the unusual patterns could be for legitimate reasons, such as pricing the market incorrectly.”
The findings are the highest quarterly figure for tennis this year under the ESSA system. In the first two quarters, there was a combined report of 43 suspicious patterns. During 2016 there was a total of 103 suspicious matches reported around the world.
Despite the statistics, there is no evidence to conclude that match-fixing has occurred in all or any of these cases. Other variables such as weather, playing injury or illness and fitness could contribute to the adverse findings.
The ongoing fight
Match-fixing has been an issue affecting tennis in recent years. Especially in the lower-level tournaments where the prize money is low and the costs are high. Former US Open junior champion Oliver Golding was once approached to fix a match by a fellow player. Greece’s Alexandros Jakupovic asked him to deliberately drop the first set and he would be given €2,000. Golding reported the player to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).
“There is a problem in tennis and it does need to be stamped out, so I’m sure I did do the right thing, but it is a tough process to go through.” Golding told ITV News in October.
Jakupovic received a lifetime ban from tennis in November 2015 after being found guilty of five corruption offences.
The TIU received a total of 65 suspicious alerts during the third quarter of 2017. One of the few players to be named was Alexandr Dolgopolov who was under investigation following his 55-minute loss at the Winston-Salem Open. The Ukrainian has denied any wrongdoing.
“I was giving my best effort. I wasn’t playing my best. I was doing a lot of practice before [arriving at Flushing Meadows] because I wasn’t feeling good against [Nick] Kyrgios in Cincinnati. I was physically weak.” Dolgopolov commented about his loss.
Tennis is one of the biggest betting markets in the world. According to British bookmaker Coral, they receive over 33,000 bets on tennis matches every year.
