match fixing

Amazingly, Davydenko's name cropped up.

Its hardly a shock though, dunno how it even made the news

Tennis is one of the most corrupt sports around. If they aren't fixing then they are doping.

who is the top 50 male player accused of repeatedly fixing his first set? Doping rife as well

Jan 17, 2016 -- 10:51PM, lurka wrote:

who is the top 50 male player accused of repeatedly fixing his first set? Doping rife as well

Verdasco

Article is on buzz feed...16 players regularly flag up but they don't name them.

you sure Caramba? I thought either him or Fognini without looking at records

yes it's Verdaaco

looks like he's been fixing a few second sets more recently as well. How you know it's him or are you just guessing?

I don't know if it's him they're referring to but this was written a few months ago:
http://lastwordonsports.com/2015/11/07/curious-case-fernando-verdascos-odds/

so seems likely.

looking at his 2015 results he lost a ridiculous amount of first sets alright. I'm sure he's dodgy, have thought so for a while. The evidence in the article is not the best tho in comparison to some more obv fixes, like those dutch doubles guys. They should have used betfair graphs and odds. Bookies withdrawing markets completely is much dodgier looking

Is there even any liquidity on 1st set betting on here these days?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35319202

Jan 17, 2016 -- 11:44PM, caramba wrote:

Is there even any liquidity on 1st set betting on here these days?

Do you even need liquidity on that market? Just back/lay appropriately on the match odds market.

can't imagine a fixer gets more than a small fraction of profits out of bookies, most of it would be on here surely and it would all be reflected in price movements in match odds

TBH it's all the usual suspects.

Just guess a few names and you will be pretty spot on.

The spanish have a bad reputation when it comes to fixing and doping in tennis and football. Not surprised about Verdasco.

BBC report :
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35325473

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/
2685408-Betting-and-Telecoms.html#
document/p26/a271720

the leaked report

http://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/the-tennis-racket#.rx0YGy6oov

Majority of the stuff feels a long time ago. You get this feeling from them saying only 8 are in the AO draw.

It ties in with noticeable stuff on Betfair too. Back in 2007 you had points of the season where there was a fix a week, if not more. There hasn't been many dodgy markets at tour level on Betfair recently.

good article.

unsurprisingly paints the picture of the TIU many of us already guessed at.

pretty f*cking shameful.

of course the significant corollary to this, is that if the ATP & WTA are more concerned about protecting their image than policing their sport, the insinuations and accusations made at places like THASP seem all the more plausible.

absolutely. the report is based on the leaked study of pre 2009 cases. The 'scoop' or 'news', if you'll call it that is that they did nothing about it back then despite strong evidence and that is the only real 'news' in the articles.

I reported those 2 Dutch lads to them when they played. Nothing done about it. The TIU can get account details from Betfair in these cases but don't want to know. The TIU and drug testing in tennis is ridiculous, people need to give the sport a lot of stick about it for it to change. They are only concerned with protecting the image, prominent people slating the sport will affect its image and they will act then.

That bloke in the press conf earlier said they've spent £14m on anti-corruption. On what exactly i wonder?

Seb Coe will be a happy man this week

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/
2691173-TIU-Response-to-BuzzFeed-News-
15-January-2016.html#document/p3/a272115

the really damning bit of that buzzfeed article is that the ATP deliberately chose TIU-lite instead of a proper unit.

so yes, they probably can say they've not covered anything up, because they've made next to no f*cking effort to investigate anything that would need to be covered up.

The problem is the actual important parts of the articles with regards to TIU being weak get totally ignored by the major outlets like BBC. Instead they run with the sensational stuff about match fixing at Wimbledon, a grand slam winner involved.

The media in general handles these cases awfully. There should be pressure for these reports with names to be revealed, you reveal it with the facts so no chance of libel responses (ie. Player X was getting matched at very strange odds). Focus on why the TIU is not up to scratch. Now you've got people talking on TV like match fixing is rife going on every week, which is clearly not the case.

In part I feel it's because they don't get anyone in who understands betting markets. There are people out there that believe the it could just be one person betting lots on their opinion stuff etc.

Tennis response today was pathetic, but I've read only minor criticism (mainly from Twitter) criticising it.

Ultimately feel nothing will happen and this will be largely brushed under the carpet and forgotten.

The problem is the actual important parts of the articles with regards to TIU being weak get totally ignored by the major outlets like BBC. Instead they run with the sensational stuff about match fixing at Wimbledon, a grand slam winner involved.

despite buzzfeed doing an excellent job of emphasizing where the problem really lies.

i love the idea of the SEC not looking at grossly suspicious trading data and monitoring the exchanges, because they think it's better if brokers inform them.

I just want to know who the players are that attract unusual betting patterns and also players who text match fixers. They accused Pakistan of match fixing against England at cricket recently because there were allegedly unusual betting patterns. It was unfounded but it would be nice to know specially if you wanted to make a decent sized bet. I don't bet on Pakistan matches anymore. Makes life easier, no drama's

Jan 17, 2016 -- 10:53PM, caramba wrote:

Jan 17, 2016 -- 10:51PM, lurka wrote:who is the top 50 male player accused of repeatedly fixing his first set? Doping rife as wellVerdasco

well screw u buzzfeed fucking with my patterns

the matchfixing story obviously had an impact on Verdasco

how he beat nadal on hard court if he a fixer

I think you might find drug testing is better these days. Nadal hasn't won much lately. I wonder why that is?

http://lastwordonsports.com/2015/11/07/curious-case-fernando-verdascos-odds/

Can someone please tell me what program or webpage shows odds and opening prices and movements like shown in this article?

If nadal was doping he has stopped completely and/or his body has broken down from years of doping (which is inevitable if you dope consistently for years). New testing/rules would not be the reason he has stopped, unless he has missed 2 out of competition tests in the last 12 months, but we are never told when those tests are missed. Dopers don't stop because of new testing, they will move with the times and work around the tests. The new tests are always announced in advance in every sport, which I've never understood unless as I believe the authorities don't really want to catch dopers.

If Verdasco is a fixer it's probably the one time he wouldn't risk it after the scrutiny from the reports this week.

Tier - try flashscores or tennis explorer. TE will show you historic odds from old matches

Tennis match fixers taking anxieties out on court this week.

Verdasco hammered the living daylights out of the tennis balls in a win over Nadal.

Azarenka wins 6-0 6-0

Fixarevic, Llodra and Chela currently in hiding.

There is a Programme on Radio 4 Tonight 8pm might be worth Listening to ,8 of the suspect players are playing in the OZ open according to reports ,I would not be surprised if Nadal heads the list tbh

No chance Nadal is on the list. The headlines would be far more sensational if a monster fish like that was on the list. There is no mention of a former world #1. BBC said a grand slam winner, ESPN's article seems to clarify that by saying a US Open winner.

Cilic & Pennetta.

ESPN say a USO Open Singles Champion & Doubles Winners at Wimbledon. Errani/Vinci must be in the mix and perhaps Pennetta too.

But what is strange is that the BBC and Buzzfeed articles aren't so specific and they're the ones the report was passed to.

List of my least favourite players

Philipp Kohlschreiber, Potito Starace, Andreas Seppi, Fabio Fognini, Janko Tipsarevic, Michael Llodra, Nikolay Davydenko, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Victor Crivoi, Christophe Rochus, Oscar Hernandez, Yevgeny Korolev, Filippo Volandri, Wayne Odesnik, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, Francesca Schiavone, Sara Errani, Maria Kirilenko, Kateryna Bondarenko

Also don't like these much either

Brian Dabul, Eduardo Scwhank, Jeremy Chardy, Simone Bolelli, Lukasz Kubot, Carlos Berlocq, Igor Kunitsyn, Andrey Golubev, Alex Bogomolov, Somdev Devvarman, Steve Darcis, Marin Cilic, Flavio Cipolla, Ivo Karlovic, Viktor Troicki, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci, Virginie Razzano, Romina Oprandi, Dominika Cibulkova, Eleni Daniilidou

Tennis Integrity "Suspicious betting patterns doesn't mean corruption is taking place"

50 suspicious Games in 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wd7f0#play

Is probably counting challengers and qualifiers. So that number sounds high, but I wonder if any of them were in a regular tour match.

Jan 18, 2016 -- 12:14PM, lurka wrote:

absolutely. the report is based on the leaked study of pre 2009 cases. The 'scoop' or 'news', if you'll call it that is that they did nothing about it back then despite strong evidence and that is the only real 'news' in the articles. I reported those 2 Dutch lads to them when they played. Nothing done about it. The TIU can get account details from Betfair in these cases but don't want to know. The TIU and drug testing in tennis is ridiculous, people need to give the sport a lot of stick about it for it to change. They are only concerned with protecting the image, prominent people slating the sport will affect its image and they will act then. That bloke in the press conf earlier said they've spent £14m on anti-corruption. On what exactly i wonder? Seb Coe will be a happy man this week

Robin Haase tweeted about the story yesterday and how people sent him abuse after his loss

Aaron ‏@AaronH02056  23h23 hours ago
@robin_haase morons would have abused you regardless of anything the media have said

Aaron ‏@AaronH02056  23h23 hours ago
@robin_haase http://www.sportdw.com/2014/08/how-to-fix-tennis-match-by-boy.html … when matches like this happen & there is seemingly no action,no wonder ppl get suspicious of coverups

Robin Haase ‏@robin_haase  23h23 hours ago
@AaronH02056 they have been taken action so I do not understand your point.

Aaron ‏@AaronH02056  23h23 hours ago
@robin_haase were Antal and Boy cleared of wrong doing after an investigation then? very few matches are outright like this so someone close

Aaron ‏@AaronH02056  23h23 hours ago
@robin_haase if not the players had to know something.

Robin Haase ‏@robin_haase  22h22 hours ago
@AaronH02056 ask the TIU for information. Get the facts. It is not my problem

Jan 19, 2016 -- 9:20PM, casemoney wrote:

Tennis Integrity "Suspicious betting patterns doesn't mean corruption is taking place"

To be fair, it isn't. It's good circumstantial evidence, but it remains that; circumstantial. It's probably very difficult to fully prove matchfixing is definitely taking place.

Jan 20, 2016 -- 12:55AM, Darlo Bantam wrote:

Jan 19, 2016 --  9:20PM, casemoney wrote:Tennis Integrity "Suspicious betting patterns doesn't mean corruption is taking place"To be fair, it isn't. It's good circumstantial evidence, but it remains that; circumstantial. It's probably very difficult to fully prove matchfixing is definitely taking place.

This is what people aren't seeming to get. you can't out people in this report on the basis of dodgy markets

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

A South American tennis player has told the BBC that match-fixing is commonplace and even some elite players are "a little bit dirty in some way".

He also claimed fixing is not just limited to lower-ranked professionals and is "a secret that everybody knows".

The player, who requested anonymity, said tennis authorities "know who is doing it" but are unwilling to stop it.

The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said it rejects "any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed".

"We invite the player behind the allegations to make contact with the TIU and to share the information he claims to have," the TIU added in a statement.

The allegations come after a BBC and BuzzFeed News investigation revealed suspected illegal betting in tennis over the past decade.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's World Have Your Say team, the player detailed how matches are allegedly fixed and the lengths criminals go to in order to remain undetected.

"This is like a secret on the tour that everybody knows, but we don't talk about it," he said. "We just see it and keep working."

"You know who is doing it, and who is not," he continued. "As a player I know who is missing on purpose or returning a shot in the middle on purpose; who is trying, and who is not. So we work on this - we know."

He also claimed players exchange knowing smiles and make comments that indicate they have fixed a match.

"I started to believe [top players were involved] a few years ago, when a guy told me the result of the next two tournaments - he told me exactly who was going to win and how it was going to happen," he said.

"In the beginning I thought he was just bragging about it to make me fall for his game. But then I was laughing that every match was happening the way he had been telling me it was going to happen - and I'm talking about a Masters series, where there are just big names there."

So you were told who was going to win?

Not just that, added the player, but "exactly" how they would win.

"When I was watching it myself," he said, "I couldn't believe it. It's not easy knowing that you have to lose. You start hitting it and, trust me, everything goes in… it can make you panic.

"So, when I see the guy winning so easily and then he's missing absolutely on purpose, every ball, and the other guy wins... I just couldn't believe it."

"We could co-operate with tennis integrity if we wanted to, but they don't want it to be stopped," he said.

He claimed fewer players would be tempted to fix if they were getting paid more, insisting a player ranked 400 in the world cannot make a living out of tennis.

"They [the authorities] know exactly who is doing it and, if they wanted to stop it, they could stop it today. It's super-easy. They just don't want to do it."

In response, the TIU said it has a "zero-tolerance approach which is enforced with the full powers of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program that includes lifetime bans and punitive financial penalties".

It added: "The TIU works closely with players to prevent corruption through education programmes and confidential reporting systems.

"The great majority of the 21,000 active professional players are good people of high integrity who abhor the suggestion that the sport they love is tainted with allegations of corruption."

But then I was laughing that every match was happening the way he had been telling me it was going to happen - and I'm talking about a Masters series, where there are just big names there.

I smell a large dose of bullshjt.

perhaps someone told him Djokovic was going to win

That story from the SA tennis player sounds like an ATP stitch up to me. So unbelievable that the punters may think that fixing really is not going on. A Masters event, and knowing who and how is going to win it? Really... like most of the field in on the act... sounds far fetched to me.

hold on a second.

aaron - from those tweets with haase, am i to conclude that he's stating the Van der duim and Westerhof have been punished by the TIU/ATP?


Admittedly their activity has been somewhat barren for some time.

As I'm missing the announcement from the ATP......

agree suspicious betting patterns alone is incredibly dangerous to act on. You could get someone with a few hundred k and a grudge trying to stitch up a player. We've already seen how someone with say 300k can completely manipulate a market and make it look like a fix when it was anything but. Thinking of that match was it Sela v Arguello a couple of years back when someone manipulated the market to change the favourite's odds from 1/3 to 3/1 ish a few hours before the match and then all the way back again just before it started! Everyone thought that was a certain fix but the odds moved normally in-play, which is the tell-tale sign. There can be a number of reasons for large price fluctuations pre-match (injury, illness etc) but there is only one reason for odds not moving normally in-play imo, that is always the giveaway, always a fix.

But what is most disturbing is that there was heavy mafia involvement. These guys are the most organised of organised criminals anywhere in the world and I find it highly doubtful that when the suspicions were raised about all those players back in 2009 that the mafia types stopped completely. That opened the authorities' eyes to betting for the first time and how it could be a major problem. They didn't have a clue before that and the way the fixes were conducted so obviously would support that. But we've seen that these mafia accounts were backing ridiculously low odds and prob not making a great return percentage-wise on their money. Any half decent tennis trader could advise these gangs that 'you are doing it in a very stupid and obvious way and there are much better ways to do it in a far more profitable and undetectible way, like 40-0 up serving for the match in a close match and going to deuce. And i've seen a few quotes where insiders have said that once you agree to fix they have a hold over you for life, you are getting into bed with career criminals with nothing to lose who will do jail-time in their sleep and you have everything to lose, they have dirt on you and can expose you at any time. That's why I doubt that they stopped completely. I find it more likely they moved with the times and came up with smarter ways to do it and keep their player 'assets' doing what they wanted. A player is not going to say 'they're onto me now so I have to stop', if they don't want that and the player has family etc back home who could be targeted. The player will be told, 'no, you will do it this way from now on'. The notion that they can own a player's entire career is the most worrying thing for me and not on an integrity level either.

Re Haase, I don't think those players were banned but one hasn't played in a while. Certainly nothing official from TIU about it but it wouldn't surprise me either the way they covered up Cilic positive for months before making an announcement. Maybe the players know different.

is that bloke talking about Masters events ^^ Johan Kriek or someone different, because Kriek said more or less the same thing on BBC radio yesterday? Always thought there was something very organised about the Masters 1000 events and the way the pics and scoreboards were slower than anywhere else, someone or probably a group were making serious amounts from that.

Find it ridiculous that anyone can say that they think tennis is clean when it comes to doping or fixing, how on earth can anyone tell without transparency from the authorities, they remind me of the cycling authorities and I'd agree with Murray that no sport or walk of life is without cheats thriving. It's simply human nature unfortunately.

This claims to be the BBC/Buzzfeed names:

http://showlegend.tumblr.com/post/137644525409/the-buzzfeed-15-exposed

http://www.sportdw.com/2016/01/tennis-fixing-buzzfeed-hewitt-innocent.html

Igor Andreev (RUS), Lukas Lacko (SVK), Ivan Dodig (CRO), Andrey Golubev (KAZ), Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG), Lleyton Hewitt (AUS), Jan Hajek (CZE), Albert Montanes (ESP), Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP), Janko Tipsarevic (SRB), Alex Bogomolov Jr (RUS), Matthew Ebden (AUS), Denis Istomin (UZB), Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) and Michael Russell (USA).

aaron - from those tweets with haase, am i to conclude that he's stating the Van der duim and Westerhof have been punished by the TIU/ATP?
Admittedly their activity has been somewhat barren for some time.

Van der Duim played last week and since that match only missed a few months between April 15 and Aug 15

However...Westerhof hasn't played since july

agree suspicious betting patterns alone is incredibly dangerous to act on. You could get someone with a few hundred k and a grudge trying to stitch up a player. We've already seen how someone with say 300k can completely manipulate a market and make it look like a fix when it was anything but. Thinking of that match was it Sela v Arguello a couple of years back when someone manipulated the market to change the favourite's odds from 1/3 to 3/1 ish a few hours before the match and then all the way back again just before it started! Everyone thought that was a certain fix but the odds moved normally in-play, which is the tell-tale sign. There can be a number of reasons for large price fluctuations pre-match (injury, illness etc) but there is only one reason for odds not moving normally in-play imo, that is always the giveaway, always a fix.


There were a couple of French Ligue 2 matches a couple of seasons ago where the HT/FT market had some very suspicious activity on one outcome with huge sums really moving the market. One or two landed, but many didn't. Again, is it a sign of a fix, a fix gone wrong, or just manipulation. Either way, it just demonstrates you can't go on the market itself to prove suspicious matchfixing activity.

It's fairly obvious the ones where the odds are strange over and over again are fixers such as Llodra and Chela to name just 2.

fair enough Darlo, but when you see these sites relying on SPs only to eg accuse Verdasco they show a fundamental misunderstanding of what they are talking about imo. The in-play activity is much more of an indicator but they don't produce it. The Buzzfeed report does the same in places. If any of them even spoke to a tennis trader like one of us we would all tell them that's what they should be looking at primarily, so it seems they haven't even done that.

If it is mafia run then I wouldn't be surprised if that's a major reason the TIU don't want to get involved. You need Interpol or the FBI for that due to the international element and who you are dealing with. In Russia the mob goes right up to government level, they are above the law. They are dangerous and normal people simply can't stand up to them. So even vilifying the players involved is not the way to cut it out. They threatened a Betfair employee in Russia and I've no doubt they would do the same with players and their families. Media will probably spin it as a dirty Russian/Italian players issue but it isn't really. I wouldn't put myself or my family at risk, there are more important things in life than tennis integrity when you get to that level.

Was watching a Russian Mafia doc there and Davydenko is in the car talking to the main man! Another mob guy from the same doc's wiki page says

He is notably close to professional Russian tennis players. For instance, a 2002 article in the Belgium daily La Libre Belgique [2] reported on interviews of Russian players following Tokhtakhounov's arrest in Italy. Yevgeny Kafelnikov defended his "friend", Marat Safin refused to discuss a topic that was "not his problem" while Anna Kournikova commented "I have heard of this man. But I don't think I should talk about it. I am Russian and I will have to go back there". Pressed to say whether Tokhtakhounov could be called a mobster, she answered, "One might say that."

The in-play activity is much more of an indicator but they don't produce it. The Buzzfeed report does the same in places. If any of them even spoke to a tennis trader like one of us we would all tell them that's what they should be looking at primarily, so it seems they haven't even done that.

Yeah, I've reported a couple because of the inplay activity and nothing to do with anything pre-off.

the interesting question is do the ATP and ITF leave themselves protected from litigation if they suspend a player from the tour without giving a reason. it's their club, and one imagines it's entirely within their rights to not invite players onto the tour for whatever reason they choose.

presumably announcing that you have suspended someone because of match fixing concerns leaves you open to slander and libel claims where the legal onus is on the alleged slanderer to back up their claims.

i am very intrigued by that Haase comment and Westerhof's lack of activity......

I wonder why it wouldn't be announced given Westerhof is a nobody though

might just be injured or whatever

can't see how they'd 'deal with' only one of them and not the other given how the match panned out and how close they were?

maybe one of them took the rap to save the other but that still doesn't stack up really

Westerhof tore his ACL and MCL while playing 2. Bundesliga on July 26th, so no, his absence is not due to a silent ban.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/sport/tennis-klare-worte-1.2584491

at 6-7,1-2

boy oh boy

Its over for tennis just another sport covering up till they got caught. Drugs in tennis is rife its just not tested. Like cycling and athletics it just comes out. Football doping is next to be uncovered. Any sport where they dont blood test is doping ripe.

why do they have the tennis integrity unit in england when the english know absolutely nothing about tennis?

that's like having an alcoholics anonymous meeting in a pub. it's never going to work.

fixx0rz crawling out from their holes:
https://latestnewsresource.com/en/news/chilijskij-tennisist-anonimno
-priznalsja-v-uchastii-v-dogovornyh-matchah

not just the head of the TIU but also the ATP, UCI (cycling) and IAAF, all English. Surprised they haven't gone for FIFA as well to get a monopoly on corruption in sport.

That letter the Chilean player wrote sets out the commercial realities of playing on the lower level tour. I don't blame them and they don't seem to see it as wrong either.

they should disband all of them and start again and nobody who is a product of the old corrupt regimes, like Coe or any of these FIFA candidates, should be allowed anywhere near the new organisations. They are part of the problem and nothing will change.

head of WADA is Scottish as well. WTF

nothing will change. it will be only worse

http://discuss.tennis/index.php?blogs/daniel-koellerer-the-atp-h
as-destroyed-my-life-the-fab-four-would-never-be-disqualified.34/


(he also states it wouldnt be worth it for top 4 to fix a match but nice rant none the less)