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

[thebanana]

Look folks, here's a reality check, Wherever there is big money to be made, there is fixing, to ensure that even more money can be made. If you believe otherwise, you're an even bigger sucker than they think you are.

[veracity]

Corruption in sports is just a subset of a far larger problem: ENTERTAINMENT and luxury living as the Alpha & Omega of our "modern" society, or modern, industrialized, automotive, sit-on-your-duff and be entertained" culture.
But "Bread & Circus" isn't so modern after all.

On the other hand, we don't see much glory in the struggle for survival in subsistence cultures, either. One western writer wrote about how he helped an Afghan boy make get to the other side of a potentially deadly river crossing..­.. only to have the boy's father return to the scene, and scold the boy for accepting help.
Shakespeare caught this conumdrum in Henry V, Act II, Scene1 -
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,

"Silken dalliances" symbolizing frivolity and the pursuit of finery and social interactoins in a peacetime society,
vs the arms and amour of a society set on war.

It is looking like, even in our "modern" society, we swing from one extreme to the other, in predictable 20 year cycles.

[maschwab]

But "Bread & Circus" isn't so modern after all.
That was a good Star Trek episode.

[rpahk]

Does this explain why so many matches go the full 5 sets? I have suspected that players intentionally let the matches go 5 sets even though one player could have won in fewer sets. I assumed they were doing this to improve the advertising revenue for the broadcasters (do they get a cut?). If betting goes on during a match, why not stretch it out to maximize betting revenue?

I don't know why any of this is a surprise..­...EVERYTH­ING is controlled by money interests (war in Iraq, politics in DC, gov't regulations, etc etc).

[BWonka]

Never trust a game where all the players have yellow balls - unless it is the Hep C league....

[speakingtruth2power]

Everybody "knows" that Big Time Wrestling is fixed, but too

many suckers think that everything else is on the up and up.

I have seen several football games where the referees have

determined the outcome of the game and forget about the F-

ing Olympics!!! Gambling only begs for corruption of a sport.

[thizzkid]

case in point Seattle vs Pitsburgh 3 years ago in the superbowl

[Stretchumall]

Are you referring to the TD that wasn't?

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Is it time to end all sports? Honestly, what is the point of having these events if they are fixed?

[moda31]

match fixing is particularly problematic in tennis in part because in order to be able to make a living playing the sport you have to be in the absolute top tier, people would be surprised at how little money even fairly highly ranked players make, there are many players in the top 50-60 who can barely afford to do more than pay their coaches and cover their travel expenses. compared to other sports, tennis players make relatively little for the time and skill level required of their career, and those that aren't at the very top of the sport, though they are amazingly skilled, are not at all well compensated, it's hardly surprising that the temptation to fix matches is so high. the betting problem is a big one and a complicated one, there are so many parties at fault and so many flaws in the existing system.

[LiberalBuzz]

And this surprises.­...who?

As long as big money can become involved and as long as their are tennis players in need of some of that money, corruption is going to happen. I agree with a few others, time to take betting off tennis and probably a few other sports as well.

[researcher]

money sports and competition and gambling leads to greed and cheating.

but we blame the players and dont look at the system

capitalism leads to greed but likewise we blame the guys at bear sterns and not the system

same with employees in a corporation when a mistake is made we blame employees and seldom look at the system

very few in the world understand what I just stated

look on this blog how often we blame people over systems ie myself included

deregulated capitalism sure sign of self destruct

we are living that self destruct now

reagan's pure genius of deregulation to eliminate the middle class

the have mores have more in a third world society

ie cheap labor like the so called illegals

the not so funny part the middle class lined up to vote for him, pure genius on reagan's part.

[ripples]

I knew something was fishy back in 1973 when billy jean king beat bobby riggs in 3 straight sets - riggs wouldn't shut up about how is was gonna whip king, damn guy probably bet a fortune against himself

[Irons]

Then there is the dumbest gambler in the world: He bet on himself to lose a pistol duel.

[craneman]

I wonder, how far back in time does the fix go ?

[ultramagnetic]

Wow even tennis.

[kellygrrrl]

oh! more White Collar criminals

[wadenelson1]

Nahh, white short criminals.

[BlackbirdHighway]

Sharapova is fun to watch, on or off the court.

[knerd]

What about the tennis steroid scandal?