French Open: Another Tennis Betting Scandal

At first assessment, the French Open organizers have a point in suing three big European sports betting companies, trying to ban gambling at this year's tournament.  

But if the French Tennis Federation would look a little deeper into the issue, they would understand how preposterous of an idea this is, and how this slope is more slippery than the finest European clay.

Essentially, after years of recurring instances of alleged corruption, paranoid tennis officials don't know what to do about them.  So, they're shooting the messenger.

The integrity of tennis is in a fragile state, after allegations of match-fixing and unusual betting patterns have created stirs.  Four Italian players who have been found guilty for betting on tennis are not top-tier players, nor were they admittedly betting on their own matches.

ESPN reports that years earlier, the ATP took some preventative measures after several suspicious bets by Austrian gambler, Martin Fuhrer, against his friend, lowly touring pro, Irakli Labadze.  This happened quite a bit, until 2004 when suspicion was high enough for several bookies to ban bets from Fuhrer.  Then the tennis higher-ups seemed to leave the issue be, hoping for a magic decline in corruption. 

These events were more like blips on the tennis radar, as the players involved were mediocre.  Their rankings and limited fame kept these incidents from causing panic.

Nikolay Davydenko, on the other hand, is the best player in Russia, and was ranked #4 in the world when cloud came over his first round match at a small tour event in Sopot, Poland.  Six-figure bets against Davydenko reportedly came in to British online gambling firm, Betfair, even after Davydenko won the first set against the ATP's 87th ranked player.  The betting patterns screamed corruption to regular tennis betters and analysts.

According to a recent ESPN investigation, 20% of the bets against Davydenko that day came from gamblers in Russia.  It's looking much worse.  We wouldn't know stuff like this, if not for Betfair being proactive and providing the ATP with betting records.  Yet, the desperate tennis authorities want to penalize companies like Betfair.

ESPN reports the ATP took some preventative measures after several suspicious bets by Austrian gambler, Martin Fuhrer, against his friend, touring pro, Irakli Labadze.  This happened quite a bit, until 2004 when suspicion was high enough for several bookies to ban bets from Fuhrer.  Then the tennis higher-ups seemed to leave the issue be, hoping for a magic decline in corruption.

The cloud over Davydenko's match last August apparently was not new.  The difference now, is that non-betting tennis fans understand the issue and its seriousness.  It took betting irregularities in the match of a premier player to bring the issue to the forfront.  Now, like a fat guy chasing down a drop shot, the tennis authorities are ungracefully trying to ensure integrity.

Baseball's steroid scandal would not be such if it were only some minor leaguers who were suspected.  The same goes for this betting scandal that has tennis authorities in a panic.  They're lashing out at the closest available party that has anything to do with tennis betting, the betting companies.

This would be senseless, and it would actually foster corruption in the sport.  Betfair has cooperated with ATP tour officials, making betting records available.  The betting companies should be viewed by the tour as allies.

Why crack down on an illegal industry by going after the legally operated companies who want to help end corruption? 

If a match were fixed, wouldn't these gambling outlets be a savior?  Wouldn't they be instrumental in building a case against the shady players and gamblers?  At least there would be a way to track betting patterns.  Heck, betting records are a big reason why these allegations have come up.  Without them, where does the investigation of match-fixing begin? 

If the tennis institutions consistently try to keep these outlets from taking bets on tour events, the entire tennis gambling industry will move underground.  Yeah, that's really what we need right now, isn't it?  Match-fixing would go unnoticed, or at least unprovable, as betting would not be regulated and official records would not exist.  The match-fixers would then become the bookies, creating new problems, ones that tennis would not recover from.