In its final report, the Independent Review of Integrity in Tennis has recommended a ban on betting sponsorship in the sport.
At the beginning of 2016, the governing bodies in tennis appointed a special panel to review the connection between tennis and sports betting following some concerns released in the media. Now, the panel led by the barrister Adam Lewis QC has finally published its opinion.
As mentioned above, the recommendations include a ban on sponsorship agreements between sports betting operators in tennis, a restructuring of the Tennis Integrity Unit, as well as putting some limits on live data in order for the chances for corruption related to betting to be reduced. In addition, one of the major recommendations made as a result of the report was related to the termination of the sale of live-scoring data for professional tennis’ lowest levels.
No evidence of a cover-up or some major problems on top levels of tennis, but the barrister who led the panel, commented that it was actually the lower levels of professional tennis which facilitated violations of integrity.
Several Key Measures Proposed by the Panel
For some time, there have been rising concerns related to tennis and gambling, with the presence of gambling operators as sponsors of professional tennis being expanded lately.
Back in 2011, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) inked a partnership agreement with Sportsradar, with the deal which created a betting market for a massive number of matches providing very small prizes is set to end in 2020.
After the recommendations were made, Sportsradar argued that some of them, such as preventing the official data sale would result in fuelling a black market but still, the recommendation in the final report remains, despite the fact that for the time being, only the smallest tennis tournaments are included. As a whole, the decision is a major financial blow to the International Tennis Federation, so the panel also urged the rest of the governing bodies in tennis to make a financial contribution each, so that they cover the shortfall.
At the time of the review process, professional tennis took a number of steps while expecting the panel to publish its findings. The new ITF World Tennis Tour is set to start in January 2019 and is expected to end up with a massive decrease in the number of players with a world ranking who are considered professional athletes because of that. On the other hand, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) has reported significant increase in its workforce and funding since 2016.
The panel members criticised the TIU effectiveness, explaining that some insufficiencies of the historical approach of the unit could have occurred as a result of its “inadequate resources”, but others were attributable to the unit’s “insufficiently proactive attitude” on detection, investigation and prevention of tennis integrity violations worldwide.
As explained above, one of the main recommendations of the panel were related to the establishment of a new supervisory board of the unit, consisting of four tennis governing bodies-appointed members, four independent members and an independent chair.
- Author
Daniel Williams
