Tag: Sports integrity

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has handed a lifetime ban to French tennis player Alexis Musialek after he was found guilty of match-fixing offences.

Musialek, who reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of 255 in 2015, had initially denied all charges. However, an investigation uncovered his involvement in fixing nine tennis matches between 2016 and 2018.

Among the offences were contriving the outcome of matches and receiving money, benefit or consideration to carry this out. The 35-year-old also facilitated other players not to use their best efforts and failed to co-operate with an ITIA investigation by withholding evidence.

In total, Musialek was ruled to have breached the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP) on 39 occasions.

The ruling means Musialek is prohibited from playing in, coaching at, or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis. Musialek has also been fined $50,000 (£39,293/€46,008).

Musialek ban link..

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has handed provisional suspensions to Timur Khabibulin, Sanjar Fayziev and Igor Smilansky for match fixing.

Each suspension came into effect on 25 July and will remain in place until the ITIA decides sanctions. Each case relates to breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP).

Kazakhstan’s Khabibulin, who reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of 753 in 2016, was found to have breached the TACP 18 times between 2014 and 2018.

In the case of Fayziev, he committed five breaches of the TACP following an approach from Khabibulin. The Uzbeki national had a career-high ATP ranking of 253 in 2017.

Finally, Smilansky of Israel breached the TACP three times after also being approached by Khabibulin. He had a career-high ATP ranking of 451 in 2018.

Tennis match fixing – corrupt approaches

The players were collectively found to have contrived aspects of matches, related to tennis match fixing. They were also ruled to have facili..

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has suspended Bolivian tennis official Percy Flores for 12 years over a series of corruption charges.

Flores, who was also fined $15,000 (£11,673/€13,609) by the ITIA, was ruled to have breached the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP).

Some 31 breaches were noted between November 2021 and October 2022. These included routine manipulation of scores for betting purposes by entering the wrong score into the umpire’s handheld device.

Flores, a white badge umpire, did not contest the charges and had his suspension backdated to 8 December 2022. The ITIA also reduced this by three years due to mitigating circumstances, including early admission of charges.

As such, the suspension will run until 7 December 2034. Flores cannot officiate at or attend any event authorised by tennis’ governing bodies.

Corruption breaches

In terms of the specific breaches, ITIA noted several sections of both the 2021 and 2022 editions of the TACP.

Featur..

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) recorded 50 suspicious betting alerts in the second quarter, with football again the main area of concern.

The Q2 total was lower than the 88 alerts reported in the same quarter last year, but higher than 48 in Q1 2023. IBIA initially reported 40 reports for the first quarter, although this was later revised upwards.

Football generated the most alerts for the second consecutive quarter, with 19 representing 38% of the Q1 total.

IBIA also noted 14 alerts for tennis, eight for table tennis and five for darts. In addition, there was one alert each for boxing, bowls, esports and badminton.

34 alerts in Europe

In terms of geography, Europe was by far the main source of suspicious betting alerts, with 34 across the continent.

Of the European alerts, tennis was the primary source with 11, followed by table tennis and football with eight each. Darts competitions were responsible for five, then one each for badminton, boxing and bowls..