BuzzFeed and the BBC Expose Evidence of Match-Fixing in Tennis

White collar crime in sports has been a topic of much discussion over the last year, including the widespread coverage of corruption allegations against high ranking officials with FIFA (discussed here).  Now it appears that the tennis word is coming under greater scrutiny as a BuzzFeed and BBC article is released discussing what they describe as "widespread match-fixing by players at the upper level of world tennis."  

The article, entitled The Tennis Racket, was released over the weekend and immediately provoked much discussion.  The story details evidence of match-fixing, including the involvement of Russian and Italian gambling syndicates.  According to the authors, tennis's governing body has been repeatedly warned about the activities of a core group of sixteen players, each of whom has ranked in the top 50 and some of whom are winners of singles and doubles at Grand Slam tournaments.  According to the report, none of the sixteen have been sanctioned and more than half will be playing in the Australian Open, which started today.  Included in the article is a fascinating discussion of a 2007 match in which the betting was so suspicious, Betfair (the world's largest internet betting exchange) suspended the market and announced for the first time in its history that all bets on the match were void. 

After the release of this article, it appears all eyes over the next couple of weeks will be on both the matches at the Australian Open and these serious allegations of misconduct.  The question now is whether this story will mark the beginning of a journey for the tennis world similar to the one the soccer world has experienced over the last year.  

(LED)