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All over the press now and Andy Murray has tweeted the Buzzfeed link:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/the-tennis-racket#.dbkBpNNKZ7


Coincidentally I've been reading about irregular betting patterns and the link with certain Premier League referees.

cliffs

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CY9F8WCW8AEjzxL.jpg)

A date has not been properly redacted - 25/07/08

 Matches on this date:

Nadal d Andreev
Gasquet d Ferrer
Kiefer d Blake
Simon d Cilic

Blimey.  I never thought a Grand Slam match would be impacted.  They play 48 weeks a year, so plenty of backwater smaller tournies to chuck.  Still plenty of money riding on those games.

There is a lot of mis information in this article (Mark Davies was not a co founder of betfair for example - he was the former PR director and son of BBC comm Barry Davies fwiw.  When people get stuff like this wrong in articles i instantly question how much they actually know about the betting markets - usually not that much).  Not quite sure why this is suddenly hitting the mainstream media press right now.  It has been going on for years and most people are well aware of it.

There is a big factor in professional tennis below the elite level which most people even in the betting industry don't realise occurs to the level it does which explains why there is so much of this going on which relates closely to poker.  Staking.  The vast majority of pros on the circuit below elite level are staked by financial backers in a pretty similar way to poker players.  Without staking hardly anyone would be able to afford to play on the tour given the exs and the levels of prize money they receive.  Obviously GB/LTA funding doesn't apply here but for most 'dodgy' countries in the world ie Eastern Europe/SAmerica this is pretty standard practice to give kids a chance.  That is why there will be mystery 'financial' advisors in centre court boxes for players who have suddenly come from nowhere and look totally out of place.

Obviously a lot of these types of backers are not the most honest operators and when their charges are not giving them the financial return they expected from their junior talent, they are told they need to help out their backer who is losing money to fund their career and throw a match/set etc.  This is the reason it goes on in the vast majority of cases.  Sometimes players have family emergencies and have to fly home immediately and will just put in a shocker to get out of the event and get home.  Again this information finds it's way into the hands of serious punters who move markets.  Is this match fixing?  They will argue if they drop out and don't play the match they would lose either a) appearance money b) prize money from the event.  If you had a normal job and this happened to you you would throw in a stinker to still get paid before you rushed home to sort out the family issue.  Is it wrong?  Probably?  Is it just human nature to do so and protect your own income?  Probably?

I know people who stake tennis players in this way via friends who are involved in both tennis betting and/or are tennis players on the main atp tour/challenger tour and the WTA/female challenger tour.  I have been asked numerous times if i could facilitate spot fixing/match fixing on lower grade games by other tennis pros who know friends of mine who are looking to pay for their exs for the upcoming year who don't have backers and are trying to do it themselves.  The vast majority of these players see they can bet on their low grade games on sites like 365 but have no idea you simply can't get 50 large on their game which is being shown in a barn on a live stream only at 365.

If the tennis authorities really want to sort out corruption they need to understand why it is happening in the same way as horse racing punters know class 6 horses running at ling/kemp on the all weather for £1200 a race are not making the game pay the 'proper' way.  Prize money needs to be levelled out across the tour if they really want to reduce this.  You will never stop it totally because of the way so much tennis talent from the dodgiest parts of the world are funded/'sponsored' in their early years.

These articles love putting in a 'top 50' player or a 'grand slam finalist' into the headlines to grab the attention of the casuals.  These will usually be a grand slam doubles finalist from Eastern europe who is not even involved at the major money end of the singles events where all the money is.  The 'top 50' player will be someone who has only hit the top 50 just once in their life.  Otherwise they would call him a top 20 player if he was ever in the top 20.  Sounds exciting to casuals but the reality is they are trying to hype it up to make the story as big a deal as possible when in reality in most cases it isn't.

There will be a select few idiot top tennis players who get greedy but it makes no sense longer term for a top 50 player to do this.  The vast majority of this goes on with low grade talent.  Just the same as horse racing.  The tennis authorities turn a blind eye to it because without these potless grinders playing the qual's etc there wouldn't be a major slam to profit from ultimately and instead of the ATP tour effectively having to pay these grinders a wage via the prize money system they can get their wage 'elsewhere' so to speak and it is a win win situation for everyone.  Hence why it is hushed up imo.  Obviously they will never admit this.

You can get 20 times more on a GS 1st round match than most other events and the player losing the game on purpose usually won't be expected to win anyway so it is so much easier for it to go under the radar.  The vast majority of 'dodgy' betting patterns on the top players are just sharp pro punters who know certain players preferences for certain parts of the tour at certain times of the year.  Certain players have to attend certain legs of the Asian tour for example for corporate/sponsorship reasonsbut have no interest in being there.  This is well known by certain people who influence markets.  These players will put no preparation into this surface etc and turn up receive the appearance fee.  They will not deliberately lose but they will not be fully wound up shall we say.

There is a player my friend knows personally who hits with him on the main ATP tour who never wins a match in January on purpose in order to pay for this ex's for the tour for the rest of the season and treats the Aussie swing as an extended pre season training camp in the sun in between the 3 tour events.  This allows him to have a longer off season over Xmas and rest better in order for him to be fresher later in the season.  Is this match fixing or just financially smart for him to do this because it gives him an edge physically later in the season in his opinion?

Novak Djokovic says he was offered $200,000 to fix a match http://gu.com/p/4fqt2/stw 

the tennis authorities had the bases of this report years ago, and have done nothing

they don't understand the betting markets?

their life is too cushy to properly deal with it?

Money talks.  They don't want to upset the apple cart of the big money events where the top players make all the money for the sport. 

Argue's explanation of this matter were fascinating.

As arb says like racing

There are a large number of jockeys who are making a maximum of 20k a year after tax slogging their guts away for a few rides a week (and that's a generous interpretation of their earnings).

I am sure there are some tennis players who play due to backers/family support but when either a journeyman tennis player/jockey spend 10 years making minimum wage if that it pays to be suspicious.

As I have posted before the excellent dw sport on twitter worth a read

https://mobile.twitter.com/sportdw

He has been reporting and putting reports on these games for years and sending to the investigation unit. They blanked him.

As a random poll, how many people on here even due tennis players were 'staked' in a similar fashion to poker players with a % of their future earnings going to their backer for their whole career in return for the upfront investment at the start?

Only because of reading sportdws stuff I was aware.

Not the same but syndicates masking as agents owning big groups of young footballers and taking a big percentage of their wages as fees,similar happened there.

It was news to me, it had never crossed my mind that they were staked.

As long as they are staked, it's obvious they will come under pressure at times. 

I just don't get it.  Even a moderately successful top 50 player has career earnings in multiple millions.  If they are bribing Novak £200k presumably it's less lower down the chain.  Just doesn't seem the risk if you are confident you can grind out a 10 year career.

It also helps to explain logically why the Eastern European players are generally 20 times hungrier than the GB, funded to the hilt by the LTA, talent to put the extra work in and actually achieve in the game.  In the women's game there are numerous players who have 'affairs' with their backers in order to repay their debts/to continue to receive staking.  I know of one staker who has slept with some of his charges.

Tennis is a dirty big money business which is loved by the rich in society hence why the big sponsors will always want to be involved.  Like most businesses (poker especially) below the surface and glamour of the slams and big money sponsorships there is a lot of dodgy stuff going on. Does the ATP really want to rock the boat and lose their blue chip backers?  That is the question that needs to be answered really.

Incred knowledge arb.

Seems incredibly obvious to me.  If rich kids with lawyer fathers can't afford to make the game pay in the UK how on earth do people think dozens of totally potless russians are suddenly affording all of the ex's to run around the tour before they get famous?

I should make it clear i am have never accepted any offer to get involved in these type of coups because i value my betfair account too much and, secondly, once you tell people they can't get £50k on a challenger match at 365 so we can all have a piece of the action to justify doing it most of these guys are not so keen.

Suppose I'm Mr Naïve, but I'm stunned by all this.

I assumed that all the youngsters were funded by respective National Academies, & after that, sponsorship, prize money & appearance fees took care of the money.

 

And now you tell me it happens in poker, too? Lordy. 

That is how the GB kids are funded (and obviously numerous other countries) and even most of them go skint trying with all the LTA funding cash.  I would be amazed if there are many countries who support their talent better than GB 'legally' shall we say in financial terms in their early years.

What has suddenly happened now though which is forcing this into the mainstream media?  That's the thing i want to know.  Something must have happened for it to suddenly take off.  It hasn't suddenly started occurring.

..

Somebody from the beeb is close with the author of the buzzfeed article I guess

In 2003 i had a client at a firm i was working for who phoned up demanding to speak to the head of tennis as the firm was the first firm outside of the exchanges to bet atp tennis to 103% every game every week (that was me amongst other roles).  We used to actually speak to our bigger clients in these days instead of saying 'you can't possibly speak to a trader his decision is final' like they do nowadays.  He was a guy from a central European country (the same country as the player who he was looking to oppose) who said 'i want to bet £10k on player x to lose 2-0 today'.  The player in question has been ranked in the top 10 in the world for singles in his career.  He said he was sitting in a casino in the same city as the event and if i took his bet and paid him he would tell me why he wanted the bet.

I agreed to take the bet (it was an even money shot i think from memory - he had £5k at evens and another £5k at 1/2 just to see how real he was.  When he was happy taking 1/2 for £5k i got the impression he wasn't messing around) and instructed my junior trader to get the £10k back and more from arbers by going top price in the world the other 3 outcomes.  I also set up a 'special market' for the event.  Player A not to win 2-0.  I then phoned up every arber on the firms books personally and said we will stand this special for whatever you can get on the other side with major books so effectively my firm were betting against our rival firms and giving the arbers a 1% freeroll for getting us on.

He told me 'player x will lose 6-2 6-3 today and can i back that outcome as well at 20/1?'  I said 'Hold on we don't do correct scores on tennis!!! Your bet is on and will be paid in full should it win and your account will not be closed win or lose.'

Obviously the guy lost 6-2 6-3 and the guy got paid (he came back to us several other times with similar bets always involving the same player) and we still won on the market because we ironed out numerous arbers big time.  This is how firms should use arbers to their advantage.  Arbers couldn't care less who they win and lose from.  By using arbers in this manner my firm still won big on the event and took money directly out of our rivals pockets.  

Glory days when bookmakers were bookmakers and actually took bets and used information to their advantage rather than saying 'trading decision' and following spreadsheets.  Incredibly our trading room used to get xmas cards and gifts from arbers for being willing to give them action even though the vast majority of them were losing money to our firm.  Could you imagine arbers sending betting firms xmas cards and presents in 2016?

Great story Arb.  Wish bookies had brains these days and actually played the market.

Isn't that what bookmaking is about?  Being sharper than your rivals and not just living of degen mugs and addicts and not taking any other business?

Well we would all like to see that, but.......

None if us want to see sport being "fixed", do we? Horse Racing, Tennis, Athletics, Cricket, & so on.

In the case under discussion, your Firm (& probably others) KNEW there was something amiss - they KNEW a bent game was about to take place.

Do you really think that, in that spot, be it Tennis or any of the other sports, the Bookie should sit on his hands, & stay schtum?

Bookies are not policeman, no, but in effect they are party to the conspiracy to defraud if they KNOW a bent game is in the offing, & they take bets on it knowing that.

To my mind, they should go to either the Police, or the Authorities, & report it, should they not?

If these bent guys can't get a bet on, the bent coup can't happen.

Not having a go at you personally, when you work for a Business, it's a bit awkward.

I absolutely get the bookies dilemma here - they can make a fortune by having this inside info. I don't think they should, though. Longer term, it is in their interests for sport to be clean.

Yup, but I don't think it's about facilitating match fixing, either. 

The only people who have to answer to the match fixing is the ATP and WTA.  It is their house.  They know it is going on and doing nothing about it other than paying lip service to the issue and sweeping it under the carpet imo.  They have to get their own house in order when there is clear evidence presented to them and they choose to do nothing about it imo. 

They are scared of losing vital revenue streams though and do everything possible to brush it under the carpet.

Maybe so.

But don't you agree that the Bookies should tell them? And if they ignore it, fine, go to the police.

These are not trading decisions, these are criminal activities.  The Bookies, in law, don't have the luxury of choice. By implication, they are accessories.

Deffo not having a go at you, but this seems so obvious to me.

Understand that, same applies to the bookies, they stand to make a few bob extra by keeping schtum. But when it comes to breaking the law, I would hope thats a different matter.

 

No.  The bookmakers should inform the respective sporting bodies for any sport.  If the ATP/WTA keep refusing to take the issue seriously why should bookmakers keep wasting their time/resources providing them with highly sensitive info for free when they clearly have no intention of ever doing anything about it?

I appreciate you are not having a pop at me (unlike yesterday!)

The vast majority of bookies LOSE money on these games so they would be more than happy for every game to be straight which is why they provide the info the ATP/WTA to do something about it (both in their short term interest and the bigger longer term picture of the sport being straight so punters trust it when they have a bet).  They cannot force these bodies to enforce bans etc if their business model is to protect the image of their sport short term/sponsorship revenues etc.  What do you think bookies should do when the ATP/WTA don't want to do anything about it?

It is a trading decision though.  Whether the guy on the phone is for real or a deluded nut is a trading decision in itself?  After all someone bribed Herschelle Gibbs to score low and he ignored it mid match because it was coming off the bat nicely!

Doesn't seem cricket to shop the tennis villain after the event.  Presumably ATP have access to all betting activity if required so they should be monitoring the integrity of their own sport imo.

  

They should go to the Police, simple.

Forget pointing fingers at the Sport Governing body & saying "not me Guv", the bookies have a responsibility, too.

Prior would be better.......

Are you being results orientated when going to the Police or reporting 'bent games' which go wrong as well like the greek football game last week?  The police hotline would be constantly engaged if this was the case.

Ha, it was such a tap in, I could not resist. And you are thick skinned, you dish it out, so I know you don't mind getting a bit back.

Good effort by Stoke yesterday, incidentally. If only they had not lost to WBA when they were down to 9 men in the first half. Come on, you gotta be impressed how I knew that, right? 

No, do it in advance.

Police Hotline constantly engaged? That's their problem, not the bookies.

If firms know a game is going to be fixed, they should not sit on their hands, imo.

Why not when they can use that sensitive information to make money out of it.  Bookies are not in business to police sport.  The governing bodies are.  Bookies do more than enough on their behalf already providing information to levels that was never providing in the past pre betfair when there was no obvious audit trail to follow.

...because, or so it seems to me, it is illegal NOT to inform the legal authorities. They can't turn a blind eye to this stuff.

Meanwhile, most of us abhor match fixing, don't we? Do we really think bookies can be hear nowt, see nowt, say nowt?

So bet654.com ring the Police.  What do the police do with this information?  Go to the ATP.  They don't want it uncovered for their rep.  They will deny the match is fixed.  The police can't prove it is.  What, in reality, will actually happen?

A member of the public could easily ring the police up watching crazy betting patterns on betfair (which anyone in the world can see) every week on dodgy greek football matches.  You don't need to be a bookmaker in 2016 to see these patterns in a lot of cases.  The bodies need to employ betting experts to watch markets.  If they don't want to make a scene for commerical reasons though there is no point

I'm going to phone the police next time some mug I've backed gets broken from 40 love up and demand they get the helicopter over to the match and get the skullduggery stopped mid match :)

Gambling is regulated in most of Europe.  It would be straightforward for instance for the UKGC to prohibit its licencees from taking bets on greek football or any other area where corruption occurs.  Unfortunately that will never happen because gambling regulators are just there to ensure that the government gets a tax cut and some cronies get a cozy sinecure.

agreeing with arb on this one (gulp)

Information is reported regularly to authorities in most sports. The few quite recent cases in racing included.

Usually the sports governing body cant/wont or do not want to act.

The BHA number would have a constant engaged tone if all dodgy dealings in racing were reported.

We know that the UCI knew about and helped cover up the doping in cycling. The athletics report last week said that there was no way the top people at the IAAF didn't know what was going on with doping there.

The WPBSA is fine with John Higgins still playing snooker, and the only reason that Stephen Lee got his huge ban was because he was stupid enough to fix a match just a week after the CPS decided not to prosecute him for another match-fixing allegation.

Obv FIFA spends so much time lining their own pockets through bent activities that they just don't have the time to investigate any other dodginess in football.

The ATP/WTA clearly aren't the only sporting organisations that are happy to sweep things under the carpet.

Not just sport either - the political establishment has spent years covering up the paedo scandal because it's not in their interest for that to get investigated properly.

Power corrupts.

Last year Fed and DJork amongst others came out and said prize money for the lower players needed to be increased in grand slams and this happened.  This looked like a very selfless act by them but if you think about it more deeply and see the proper bigger picture it is selfishly in their interests for this to happen.  They earn way more money every year off the court than on it (probably 10 fold for Fed).  If spreading the prize money a little more evenly helps to reduce the bent games in the sport that they clearly know goes on then the sponsors are more likely to not leave the sport because there is less chance of a scandal hitting them.  

All the money filters up to the top of the game and they are the big fish so the cynic in me sees this as a way of trying to gain a bit of PR whilst really trying to protect the revenue their own brands can generate in the long term.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35356550

Interesting article on the issue.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/27/buzzfeed-bbc-tennis-match-fixing-allegations

How much money can you really bet on a match in a Challenger tournament?