ESSA says Tennis still dominates suspicious betting alerts

ESSA’s Q3 2016 Integrity report has shown that tennis alerts continue to stand out in their integrity statistics, with tennis accounting for 84% of all suspicious betting cases reported.

ESSA have identified 37 cases of suspicious betting activity; tennis accounted for 31 of these cases.

Mike O’Kane, ESSA Chairman, stated that he has welcomed integrity discussions with the Tennis Review Panel: “Our Q3 2016 integrity statistics follow much the same pattern as the previous six quarters, with tennis alerts far exceeding that of any other sport. Whilst the TIU [Tennis Integrity Unit] has made some welcome additions to its investigatory team, the implementation of any wider recommendations unfortunately looks to be some way off, whilst alerts continue to rise.”

O’Kane’s editorial also drew attention to the conclusions of the recently published in-play position paper by the British Gambling Commission, which found no evidence to show that the integrity risks of in-play betting are greater than pre-event betting. The Gambling Commission state in an article included in the ESSAs Q3 integrity report that they have decided to continue to regulate (rather than restrict) in-play betting.

The ESSA’s Q3 report also features another article from Charles Coppolani, President of French regulator ARJEL, on the integrity process employed during Euro 2016. ESSA is driving a number of activities aimed at addressing match-fixing, supported by European Commission, Council of Europe and the IOC, including a player education programme with EU Athletes, and an international project entitled “Keep Crime out of Sport”.