Tennis Umpires Banned for Connection to Gambling Scams
According to an exclusive report from Sean Ingle of The Guardian, two international tennis umpires have been banned and four others risk being banned as well for manipulating live betting scores in tournaments on the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Futures Tour.
Manipulating the live scores of matches allowed gamblers to place live bets while already knowing the outcome of the next point, and the umpires are alleged to have taken bribes from these betting syndicates to do so. The umpires hail from Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine.
The Guardian’s report also questions whether the ITF could have unintentionally sparked this corruption, when it signed a big five-year deal with Sportradar, which distributes live scores from tournaments across the world:
“In 2012, it signed a lucrative five-year deal worth $70 million with the data company Sportradar to distribute live scores from very small tournaments around the globe. That meant the bookmakers could provide odds on those matches, particularly on the lucrative in-play market, where odds shift as the games progress—and unscrupulous gamblers had a prime opportunity which they could ruthlessly exploit.”
The report also indicates the tennis authorities’ desires to keep these bans and punishments a secret from the public. It notes two separate cases, Kirill Parfenov of Kazakhstan and Denis Pitner of Croatia, whom were reprimanded for actions involved in these scams, but the ITF never made these public until The Guardian’s investigation forced them to do so.
In a statement regarding the four other umpires who are currently suspended while investigations continue, the ITF said:
“In order to ensure no prejudice of any future hearing we cannot publicly disclose the nature or detail of those investigations. Should any official be found guilty of an offence, it will be announced publicly. The ITF code of conduct for officials was amended in December 2015 to include public reporting of officiating sanctions from 2016 onwards. Our deal with Sportradar, like those in place with ATP and WTA, by creating official, accurate and immediate data, acts as a deterrent to efforts by anyone trying to conduct illegal sports betting and/or unauthorized use of data for non-legal purposes.”
