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TLADT24917 Posts
Thought this was interesting to share and a bit sad. Guess it's not much of a surprise considering human nature. I don't watch much tennis but have seen a few matches and it's a fun sport to spectate. Some quotes from the article:
In the report, written by Heidi Blake and John Templon, leaked documents dubbed "the Fixing Files," expose "evidence of widespread match-fixing by players at the upper level of world tennis." The findings in the 9,000-word report include the following: - The names of 70 players have appeared on nine lists of suspected fixers. These players were flagged by outside investigations and given to tennis authorities. None of the players appear to have been sanctioned.
- A core group of 16 players "have repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them." This group includes players who have won singles and doubles titles in Grand Slam tournaments. Half of these players are expected to compete in this week's Australian Open.
- A current top-50 player "is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set." This player is expected to compete in the Australian Open this week.
- Players are being approached in hotels and "offered $50,000 or more per fix by corrupt gamblers."
- Gambling syndicates in Russia, northern Italy, and Sicily "have made hundreds of thousands of pounds placing highly suspicious bets on scores of matches." Some of the suspicious bets were made on matches at Wimbledon and the French Open.
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/bombshell-report-finds-evidence-of-widespread-match-fixing-in-tennis-2016-1
How will this affect tennis overall? Think we'll see a drop in viewers or will the sport pass through it unscathed?
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I've always wondered how a match would play out if both players were approached by different gambling groups.
As long as the names do not go public the sport will be completely unscathed. And their governing body will make damn sure the names don't go public.
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Not surprising at all, money.
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Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much.
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On January 18 2016 18:40 RvB wrote: Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much.
There's a difference between a 3rd league amateur team matchfixing, and double-title winners matchfixing.
That's names like Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal etc. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't affect the sport too much. Look at Tour de France and what it has become after their scandal.
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On January 18 2016 19:27 m4ini wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2016 18:40 RvB wrote: Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much. There's a difference between a 3rd league amateur team matchfixing, and double-title winners matchfixing. That's names like Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal etc. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't affect the sport too much. Look at Tour de France and what it has become after their scandal. Football has a lot more match fixing going on than just 3rd league amateur team matchfixing. Most likely these match fixers aren't Federer or Nadal but players who won a grand slam and are past their prime.
When you're talking about the Tour de France I'm assuming it's about doping?. The difference is that with cycling a lot of the winners won while being doped. I don't think Federer or Djokovic win their grand slams due to match fixing.
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On January 18 2016 19:55 RvB wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2016 19:27 m4ini wrote:On January 18 2016 18:40 RvB wrote: Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much. There's a difference between a 3rd league amateur team matchfixing, and double-title winners matchfixing. That's names like Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal etc. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't affect the sport too much. Look at Tour de France and what it has become after their scandal. Football has a lot more match fixing going on than just 3rd league amateur team matchfixing. Most likely these match fixers aren't Federer or Nadal but players who won a grand slam and are past their prime. When you're talking about the Tour de France I'm assuming it's about doping?. The difference is that with cycling a lot of the winners won while being doped. I don't think Federer or Djokovic win their grand slams due to match fixing.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but "single and double title winners" in this case means "winning all four grand slams" and "winning all four grand slams twice", no?
That's pretty much the very best. Even if "winning two grand slams" is meant, that's still the very best.
Everything else is speculation on your part ("people past their prime, most likely not X" - pretty much the same that was said in the TdF).
Not that it's that important, i know less tennis than golf fans - but assuming that a scandal involving top pros has no effect on the sport itself is naive.
edit: which bundesliga/premier league etc team was caught matchfixing? Genuine interest.
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On January 18 2016 21:26 m4ini wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2016 19:55 RvB wrote:On January 18 2016 19:27 m4ini wrote:On January 18 2016 18:40 RvB wrote: Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much. There's a difference between a 3rd league amateur team matchfixing, and double-title winners matchfixing. That's names like Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal etc. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't affect the sport too much. Look at Tour de France and what it has become after their scandal. Football has a lot more match fixing going on than just 3rd league amateur team matchfixing. Most likely these match fixers aren't Federer or Nadal but players who won a grand slam and are past their prime. When you're talking about the Tour de France I'm assuming it's about doping?. The difference is that with cycling a lot of the winners won while being doped. I don't think Federer or Djokovic win their grand slams due to match fixing. Correct me if i'm wrong, but "single and double title winners" in this case means "winning all four grand slams" and "winning all four grand slams twice", no? That's pretty much the very best. Even if "winning two grand slams" is meant, that's still the very best. Everything else is speculation on your part ("people past their prime, most likely not X" - pretty much the same that was said in the TdF). Not that it's that important, i know less tennis than golf fans - but assuming that a scandal involving top pros has no effect on the sport itself is naive. edit: which bundesliga/premier league etc team was caught matchfixing? Genuine interest. for german Bundesliga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga_scandal_(1971) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga_scandal_(2005) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_European_football_betting_scandal
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
sports gambling is a big racket without the fixing anyway lol
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A few years from now we will all look back at this as the reason tennis died and everybody switched over to tennis 2
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tennis is notorious for being extremely top-heavy in terms of prize money so there's a lot of incentive for players who aren't grand slam contenders to participate in matchfixing.
it's quite likely that the atp/wta are aware that the matchfixing is happening but it's in their best interests to cover it up
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On January 18 2016 23:39 zeo wrote: A few years from now we will all look back at this as the reason tennis died and everybody switched over to tennis 2
if Tennis2 doesn't have Serena Williams in it then i'm not watching. as an officially certified Serena Fan-Boy i'm pleased to find out Serena didn't take the cash... i'm not surprised she took the high road.
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On January 18 2016 23:46 Exoteric wrote: tennis is notorious for being extremely top-heavy in terms of prize money so there's a lot of incentive for players who aren't grand slam contenders to participate in matchfixing.
it's quite likely that the atp/wta are aware that the matchfixing is happening but it's in their best interests to cover it up
I don't think that's necessarily fair to say.
http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Sports/wimbledon-tennis-prize-money.html
There aren't many, if any individual sports in the world, where finishing in he top 128 nets you $40,000 dollars. And given the fact that every top 100 player plays in all four grand slams, and usually around 20 tournament a year (I think you have a contractual obligation as a tennis player to player at least 18-20 tournaments a year), so the 100th rank tennis player will still earn $200,000-$500,000 a year or more.
I don't really know which sport to compare it to, since the only other individual sport on the scale of tennis which I can off the top of my head think of is probably golf. The 69th finisher earns $20,000 from the $10mil prize pool in the U.S. open in golf, versus the Wimbledon distribution of 9.6mil pounds, which to me would suggest that tennis is less top heavy.
And if you compare to team sports like hockey, where top earners will earn 6-10 million per year, while the midpack of a team earns roughly $1mil (so that's like top 200-300 in the NHL), it's really not much different from tennis.
Anyway, just trying to argue that your point has really no basis.
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On January 18 2016 21:26 m4ini wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2016 19:55 RvB wrote:On January 18 2016 19:27 m4ini wrote:On January 18 2016 18:40 RvB wrote: Every sport has match fixing. Just look at football where there's a lot of match fixing going on. I don't think it'll affect the sport too much. There's a difference between a 3rd league amateur team matchfixing, and double-title winners matchfixing. That's names like Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal etc. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't affect the sport too much. Look at Tour de France and what it has become after their scandal. Football has a lot more match fixing going on than just 3rd league amateur team matchfixing. Most likely these match fixers aren't Federer or Nadal but players who won a grand slam and are past their prime. When you're talking about the Tour de France I'm assuming it's about doping?. The difference is that with cycling a lot of the winners won while being doped. I don't think Federer or Djokovic win their grand slams due to match fixing. Correct me if i'm wrong, but "single and double title winners" in this case means "winning all four grand slams" and "winning all four grand slams twice", no? That's pretty much the very best. Even if "winning two grand slams" is meant, that's still the very best. Everything else is speculation on your part ("people past their prime, most likely not X" - pretty much the same that was said in the TdF). Not that it's that important, i know less tennis than golf fans - but assuming that a scandal involving top pros has no effect on the sport itself is naive. edit: which bundesliga/premier league etc team was caught matchfixing? Genuine interest.
A Grand Slam is just the prestige level of the tournament, like a major in golf. Having a singles (1v1) Grand Slam title means that you have won a Grand Slam tournament (Aussie Open, Wimbledon, French Open, or US Open). A career Grand Slam is having won at least one of each Grand Slam tournament during your career. Doubles refers to 2v2.
Even still, to have a former Grand Slam champion be implicated in this is pretty big news.
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On January 19 2016 02:18 FiWiFaKi wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2016 23:46 Exoteric wrote: tennis is notorious for being extremely top-heavy in terms of prize money so there's a lot of incentive for players who aren't grand slam contenders to participate in matchfixing.
it's quite likely that the atp/wta are aware that the matchfixing is happening but it's in their best interests to cover it up I don't think that's necessarily fair to say. http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Sports/wimbledon-tennis-prize-money.htmlThere aren't many, if any individual sports in the world, where finishing in he top 128 nets you $40,000 dollars. And given the fact that every top 100 player plays in all four grand slams, and usually around 20 tournament a year (I think you have a contractual obligation as a tennis player to player at least 18-20 tournaments a year), so the 100th rank tennis player will still earn $200,000-$500,000 a year or more. I don't really know which sport to compare it to, since the only other individual sport on the scale of tennis which I can off the top of my head think of is probably golf. The 69th finisher earns $20,000 from the $10mil prize pool in the U.S. open in golf, versus the Wimbledon distribution of 9.6mil pounds, which to me would suggest that tennis is less top heavy. And if you compare to team sports like hockey, where top earners will earn 6-10 million per year, while the midpack of a team earns roughly $1mil (so that's like top 200-300 in the NHL), it's really not much different from tennis. Anyway, just trying to argue that your point has really no basis.
My point is that for players outside of the top 100, it becomes difficult for them to sustain themselves from touring alone. Individual sports like tennis will have more matchfixing because: there is a more top heavy prize distribution compared to team sports, it's much easier convincing an individual to matchfix compared to a team, and in tennis if you're much better than your opponent you can manipulate the scoreline with a reasonably high probability of success, which is where a lot of money is made from betting (eg. losing the first set but winning the match).
Wimbledon prize money keeps going up but that's the most prestigious tennis tournament in the whole season. Why not talk about challenger level tournaments where the organizers actively prevented the increasing of prize money for journeymen players?
I don't understand why you're comparing the earnings of tennis players in the top 100 with those of NHL players in the top 200-300 (your stats still indicate that these NHL players earn more and don't forget you're comparing world ranking with country ranking). Tennis players in the top 200-300 earn around 30-100k in prize money a year, which is a huge discrepancy. Not to mention the additional costs of travelling around the world to play in tournaments, hiring coaches/professional staff/etc. Players do get sponsored but outside of the top 200 you get a pretty raw deal in the sense that racquets/strings/gear are covered but not much else so their living is determined by how much they can win compared to a contractual agreement of salary that team sports have. A hack player from a team sport can be benched for the whole season and still earn more than a world class player in tennis.
In short, if you're looking to pursue sport as a career from a young age there's no reason to choose an individual sport over a team one unless you happen to be a prodigy.
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On January 18 2016 22:54 oneofthem wrote: sports gambling is a big racket without the fixing anyway lol
Tennis rackets are common knowledge, not newsworthy.
(/pun)
Back on topic, I feel like the evidence quoted in the OP isn't of any useful quality. Suspicions aren't proof of wrongdoing. A bunch of different people being suspicious of the same thing just means they talk to each other, it's not any stronger as evidence. If you look at enough games, and enough bets, some suspicious upsets will happen by pure chance. And shady characters being refused by players should not reflect poorly on those players.
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