TENNIS CHEATING SCANDAL SPILLS OVER INTO INTERNET GAMBLING

8 February 2008

Organisers want to ban online betting on French Open


French tennis organisers are following in the steps of their government in seeking to ban online betting, this time on the Grand Slam tournament, the European media reported from Brussels today.

The French Open organisers filed a lawsuit today (Friday) in courts in Liege in eastern Belgium and in Paris in an apparent bid to ban online gambling companies from offering bets amid claims that Internet betting companies stain the reputation of the clay-court championship at Roland Garros.

"There is urgency to act because sporting ethic is at risk," Jean-Francois Vilotte, director general of the French tennis federation, told The Associated Press. "It is an issue as important as the fight against doping."

The issue of integrity in tennis came to the fore in August, when online betting exchange site Betfair voided all wagers on a match in Poland between fifth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko and 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello because of irregular betting patterns. Davydenko withdrew from the match in the third set, citing a foot injury.

The French federation is suing three major online gambling companies - Betfair, Bwin and Ladbrokes - with a court injunction to stop them from taking bets on the French Open. It seeks a punitive fine for each day of any violations, said Vilotte's lawyer, Jean-Louis Dupont.

Dupont said the federation's case is built on two tenets: that the betting companies are tainting the reputation of the French Open and unfairly using the tournament as a way of making money.

If a match-fixing scandal hit the French Open, it would undermine the value of the tournament, which had massive revenues and attracted 450 000 fans to Roland Garros and a potential 3 billion viewers worldwide, Dupont said.

With soccer and horse racing, tennis is among the most popular sports to bet on.

The federation accuses betting companies of dodging the fallout when there is suspicion of match fixing. "They purely scrap the bets on the event in question and by doing that generate a scandal that the organisation and players have to deal with. It can give them a lifelong ugly reputation," Dupont said.

The ATP opened an investigation into the Davydenko match, interviewing him and his wife and reviewing telephone records. No findings have been announced.

Since the match, several players have come forward to say they have been approached with offers to fix matches.

Late last year, three Italian pros - Potito Starace, Daniele Bracciali and Alessio Di Mauro - were suspended for betting on tennis matches involving other players.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa