Wimbledon Gambling Scandal: Eight Matches Fixed, Dossier Claims

Last year the New York Times reported on a widening gambling scandal in professional tennis that implicated highly-ranked players. Now, allegations have arisen that eight Wimbledon matches (the tournament begins Monday) were fixed by professional gambling syndicates:

Eight matches at Wimbledon have been reported to the tennis authorities on suspicion results have been fixed by professional gambling syndicates.

The matches have been named in a dossier compiled by leading bookmaking companies responsible for monitoring suspect betting patterns and players thought to be willing to throw game...

...Many suspect matches show huge rises in the money pledged, compared with similar games...

...An official with detailed knowledge of the dossier of 140 "suspect" matches from tournaments around the world told the Sunday Times: "If you look at a tournament, you might see one match for £23,000 [in betting turnover], one for £27,000, one for £36,000 and one for £4.5m.

"It doesn't take a genius to work out that something is going on in the last one."

Comments

[ConnecticutEG]

The discussion regarding gambling and tennis is not suprising. Referenced article in http://sportbusiness.com regarding the popularity of gambling in tennis is cited below:


http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/163527/tennis-third-most-popular-sport-at-bookies

The term "Globalization of Sports" is often thrown around certain sports web blogs and has been applied to the introduction of NFL football games in Europe. The term is deceptive and is the basis for the expansion of certain network sports betting schemes and ultimately the expansion of sports competition and match/bet fixing. NFL football games are now regularly scheduled in London and previously Mexico City. The San Diego Chargers play the New Orleans Saints this year in London. The British bookies are now making a buck off of our American sports.

[hopeless277]

Winners cheat and cheaters win. That's the true lesson of 'sports'. Once you teach you child that, everything else falls into place.

[pfc1369]

Eight Matches?

I guess you only need one player in each match to fix it.

All men? Many would assume so. The reason for this assumption may be interesting.

So it's Eight Men Out Redux,

[flabingo]

Any sport where one person is in almost total control is most vulnerable to cheating. Golf is another because of so many proposition bets. It is scary and greed is the only way they get caught

[Soothsayer08]

Yes this is true, just like horse racing, which I'm sure is fixed.

[LeonBNJ]

I believe that the UK allows all kinds of legal sports gambling, including tennis matches like Wimbledon, by licened companies. That encourages a lot of illegal gambling and attempts to fix matches by the criminals who can make huge amounts of money. Until we somehow kill off the big time gambling on sports, a worldwide issue, then fixing scandals will continue.

[Seankelly]

This is a good way of a British player winning Wimbledon - thinking about it the only way lol

[Furby]

They can't sell what we don't buy. Bring sanity back, stop buying stuff you dont' need.

[ResistanceisFutile]

Speaking of fixed?

The last super bowl is a good example!

[NoLove4HillaryAnymore]

Bull...tel­l that to those who don't know football..­.you must be out of your mind! Giants kicked NE's toosh clean and there is no way around that.

[Ping]

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Naive. It's all fixed. And the challenges and the replay official just proves it. Football is so fixed it's incredible. When I was growing up a catch was a catch and a fumble was a fumble.

[rroy]

Who know?It's still a good sport and good for your health!
Maybe that's why Justine Hennin quit!She strikes me as a very admirable person with tremendous drive and a strong character.­She seems also to be a very private person,and may have just gotten sick of the behind the scenes chicanery.­One guess is as good as another!
Human nature being what it is there are few sports that have escaped the dark side of it,if tennis was one of them and isn't anymore,it's no reason to give the sport up or for it to lose it's popularity!What the hell,baseball's history is rife with scandals,as is basketball­,football,­you name it!

[TRYKER]

Henin mysteriously lost to Safina immediately before her abrupt retirement. Martina Hingis retired suddenly, then afterwards it was reported she had tested positive for cocaine.
There might be something to Henin's retirement­...she was in the best of health and NO. 1, something she worked her life to achieve.
Watching tennis, it is almost easy to spot when the 'star' is flubbing all over the court that something is afoot. In fact, it makes it even more interesting to watch for these 'uncommon' failures in a match with a 'star' player.

[Ping]

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When you are 16 it's hard to tell if it's fixed or not, by the time you are 50 it's pretty clear all pro sports are fixed.

[truthyguy]

It is sad that so many of our sports have become places for criminal activity instead of contests to determine the best. Baseball, football, basketball and now tennis. I want the 1950s back. No doping, no cheating, no fixing. Biggest scandal was a bunch of the ball players on the road getting in a drunken bar fight the night before a game. Sad.

[bendrix]

Yeah, besides, you know, black people not getting to participate, it was awesome.

[pfc1369]

I was around in the 50's and remember the biggest gambling-fixing scandal in college hoops history.

Some of the big New York basketball schools of the era never recovered.

And it was widely believed in Baltimore, that when the Colts beat the Giants for the championship in overtime in'59, the Colts went all the way down field for the TD instead of trying an easy field goal, because owner Carrol Rosenbloom needed to cover the spread on his big-bucks bet.

And fights were fixed much of the time.

[Pleidian]

That's so bad....I love the Wimbledon tournament. But you know what else is bad? Non-linear scalar technologi­es..yeah..­.it can create earthquakes and all sorts. Just look at the aurora borealis over Sechuan before the Quake hit. Not normal.l

[pmorlan]

How sad for a sport that brought us the excitement of matches by Billie Jean King, Bjorn Borg , John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratalova and others. Each and every player that may be involved should be suspended from tennis for life.

[knighthowl]

Surely you mean each player that IS involved, not that MAY be involved.

[Ping]

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Those great matches were fixed for you entertainment pleasure. Grow up.

[Ping]

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I remember McEnroe screaming at the officials. It's the officials that fix the game, the umps, the refs, the linesman. The players have nothing to do with it.

[SlippingInTheDip]

NASCAR is also another "SPORT" thats crooked...­compare Toyota last year to this year...

[Myshkin57]

Saying NASCAR is fixed is like saying professional wrestling is fixed.

[granamica]

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie...­.you said tonight wasn't my night..... I coulda been somebody..­.now all I got is a one way ticket to Poolookavi­lle....