There have been some developments in the ongoing tennis match-fixing and betting scandal.

Two former London policemen are to lead the investigation into corruption in tennis, announced the sport’s governing bodies.

The ex-policemen are Jeffrey Rees and Ben Gunn and they will be assisting the governing bodies in a move to stamp out corruption and restore the image of tennis after a bad year in 2007, as the sport was rocked by betting and match-fixing scandals.

The two men have a good track record in stamping out corruption in sport.  Jeffrey has set up an anti-corruption unit for the International Cricket Council and Ben Gunn was the leader of a group which looked at the integrity of the British horse racing industry.

WTA Tour Chief Larry Scott said that hiring the two men was, “An important step to ensure we do everything in our power to combat the very real threat of gambling.”

Meanwhile, Etienne de Villiers, Executive Chairman of the ATP, said, “Integrity of competition is the essence of all sport.  That is why we remain fully committed to meeting the global challenge posed by gambling face on.

“We have stringent procedures and sanctions in place to deal with any suspected corruption and have shown we will act decisively where our integrity rules are broken.

“By harnessing the scale and resources of the entire sport to create a Tennis Integrity Unit we will be taking a bold and significant step in ensuring the future integrity of our sport.

“We are delighted that in Jeff Rees and Ben Gunn we have retained two of the world’s leading sports integrity experts to help us realise that objective.”

The review will be conducted over the next couple of months and is designed to complement the procedures and sanctions already put in place by the sport.

The tennis world was rocked by some major match-fixing and betting allegations in 2007.  World number 4, Nikolay Davydenko was involved in a match which had irregular betting patterns.  He was also fined for a lack of effort in another match. 

Italian players Potito Starace, Alessio Di Mauro and Danielle Braccialli all received bans for betting on other players tennis matches.

Many players have also claimed they have been offered bribes to lose matches which they have turned down. 

Also previously reported on Online Casino Press, John McEnroe believes the mafia could be involved with match-fixing in tennis.

Thankfully the match-fixing and betting allegations haven’t extended to the women’s game.  Top women’s players Maria Sharapova has claimed women’s tennis is taking the necessary measures to remain clean despite the climate of match-fixing and illegal betting which is infecting the men’ game.

She said, “The women’s game is very clean.

“Unfortunately we have to be realistic about the fact that some of these things do go on … but at the end of the day I believe that women’s tennis is doing a great job of being clean.”

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