Allegations Of Rigged Matches Rock Tennis World

High-ranking tennis players have been paid to lose, a BuzzFeed-BBC investigation finds. Renee Montagne talks to Paul Scotney of Sports Integrity Services. He authored an initial report in 2008.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The Australian Open is underway, and it kicked off with a bang. The world's former number one player, Rafael Nadal, was knocked out in the first round by Fernando Verdasco. But even that news is overshadowed by a report by the BBC and Buzzfeed that professional tennis suppressed internal investigations into match rigging for nearly a decade, allowing players flagged in reports to keep playing - among them, some of the top-ranked players in the world. No names have emerged of any players, but the Association of Tennis Professionals denies that it suppressed any evidence of match fixing. Joining us now on the line from London is Paul Scotney. He's the director of Sports Integrity Services, and he's one of the lead investigators that issued an initial report to tennis officials about match fixing back in 2008. Thank you for joining us.

PAUL SCOTNEY: Yeah, good morning. You're welcome.

MONTAGNE: We should say here that tennis officials were the ones, again, that first commissioned you to look into match fixing.

SCOTNEY: Yes, that's right. I mean, at the time I was working for another sport - for horse racing - which we're very much used to dealing with issues around betting because we exist for betting purposes. So the tennis authorities wanted some assistance. And we helped them do it.

MONTAGNE: Well, there was one match in particular in Poland that had caught their attention. What raised red flags on that one?

SCOTNEY: The betting on it was so suspicious. In a tennis match where you have someone ranked five and someone ranked 80-something, you would normally expect the person ranked five to be the favorite in that match. But in this case, that wasn't the issue. The player ranked 80-something was trading as the favorite because of the volume of money for him. So the betting industry at the time thought that suspicious. And then the way the match itself played out, they were further suspicious about it. So it was the betting industry that reported it to the tennis authorities to say that they think there was something corrupt about the match.

MONTAGNE: Once you moved beyond that one match, what else did you find?

SCOTNEY: As we carried out the investigation, we came across - mainly through contact with betting operators - a variety of other matches that were suspicious, and suspicious in the same way as the one we originally investigated.

MONTAGNE: That's the beginning of the story, obviously, which now continues, or has emerged again, these years later.

SCOTNEY: Yes, I mean, again, you know, to be fair to tennis, I don't know what rules they had in the place at the time. But I suspect the rules were not in the same position that ours were in the sport that I was working, where we had very specific rules to deal and sanction players, to get access to telephone records, to get players to come to interviews. It may be that the tennis rules at that time were not fit for purpose because this was before they set up their integrity unit.

MONTAGNE: What do you think would be the next steps for tennis officials?

SCOTNEY: Yeah, I mean, it's - this isn't just an issue for tennis. It's an issue for all sports. The question is, what do sports need to do? They need to work with the betting industry and betting operators because betting across the globe is going to continue. So there needs to be an acceptance. And tennis is one of the three top sports for betting. And those three sports are horse racing, soccer and tennis. So the facts are, it's a bet-on sport and will continue to be a bet-on sport, and authorities need to understand that and work closely with the betting operators because of that.

MONTAGNE: Well, thank you very much for joining us.

SCOTNEY: That's fine. That's all right.

MONTAGNE: That's Paul Scotney, director of Sports Integrity Services, speaking to us from London.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Views: 79

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Anti Everything on January 20, 2016 at 9:56am

Please pay special attention to the paragraph at the bottom of the page (red/large letters/bold is my doing).

All entertainment is controlled by money control and greed, all sports are entertainment, tennis is a sport

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post Three Must See Movies for Halloween
"That's a fine movie menu you've got Doc V. I love the old days theme. Great to view when…"
5 hours ago
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Three Must See Movies for Halloween

Grab Your Popcorn and Settle In!  If you really want to get in the mood for Halloween and you like…See More
23 hours ago
Bob of the Family Renner posted photos
yesterday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Terror on All Hallows Eve

Chapter IElizabeth was angry. All of her friends were going to be out on Halloween, but her. She…See More
Monday
Jeff favorited Jeff's profile
Monday
Jeff favorited Jeff's profile
Monday
Jeff favorited Doc Vega's profile
Monday
Jeff is now a member of 12160 Social Network
Sunday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Friday
tjdavis posted a video

How Corporations Are Secretly Poisoning Our Food Supply

Dupont and 3M have been secretly poisoning America for decades. PFAs — also known as forever chemicals—are now in our food, water, clothes, and our blood. Th...
Friday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

They Won’t Stop

 The demonically driven left will not stop. Makes no difference how much violence they call for or…See More
Oct 22
Doc Vega posted a blog post

What US Scientist unwittingly helped the Nazis devise the V-2 Missile?

  In the early 1920’s and leading up to World War II German technology outpaces the peace time…See More
Oct 20
tjdavis favorited Sandy's video
Oct 19
tjdavis posted a photo
Oct 19
Christopher Walker is now a member of 12160 Social Network
Oct 19
tjdavis posted videos
Oct 19
Burbia commented on tjdavis's photo
Thumbnail

Reflection

"Let's see if this goes past indictment."
Oct 18
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Something Watches From Out there in the Wilderness
"cheeki kea That's very interesting history. So many things about history that go ignored or…"
Oct 18
Burbia commented on Burbia's video
Oct 18
Burbia posted a video

Programmed To Kill/Satanic Cover-Up Part 433 (The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy Show)

https://www.programmedtokill.net/projects---- DISCLAIMER! ----Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair u...
Oct 18

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted