The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has announced that Bulgarian tennis official Pavel Atanasov has been banned from the sport for life due to multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
At the national level, Atanasov contested the charges initially but later withdrew the appeal before an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO).
AHO Richard Young presided over the case and imposed a lifetime ban on Atanasov, along with a $10,000 fine. The ban officially went into effect on 4 March 2024.
Atanasov's admission of liability encompassed various offences committed between 2019 and 2023, including manipulating match scoring data for betting purposes, facilitating wagering, conspiring to commit corruption offences, betting on tennis matches and failing to report corrupt approaches.
As a consequence of the ban, Atanasov is permanently prohibited from officiating or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by ITIA members, including the ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, Fédération Française de Tennis, Wimbledon and USTA – as well as any national association events.
Earlier this month, the ITIA also fined Luis Horna for breaching betting sponsorship rules – a decision that led to a six-month suspended ban and an additional fine of $10,000.
The decision was reached as it was discovered that Horna had entered into a contract with a betting operator to provide professional services and promote tennis betting.
According to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program: "No Covered Person shall directly or indirectly, facilitate, encourage and/or promote Tennis Betting (‘Facilitation’)” and, thus, Horna’s actions were considered a breach."
